FBI, airport fights put DC-area senators in spotlight

Senate Democrats from Maryland and Virginia will be squarely in the spotlight in the coming months as they battle with and against each other simultaneously over changes at Reagan National Airport (DCA) and the location of the next FBI headquarters. 

The lawmakers are battling one another for the replacement to the J. Edgar Hoover Building to be in their home state, but are all fighting for a replacement to be included at all in the upcoming government spending package in the face of GOP dissatisfaction with the FBI. A spending deal is needed by Sept. 30 to avert a government shutdown. 

Separately, the Democratic foursome — Maryland Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, and Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner — is fighting an expansion of direct long-distance flights out of DCA as part of the FAA reauthorization bill that also must pass by Sept. 30. 

The push-pull nature of their efforts is putting them in the middle of key battles as the race to craft must-pass legislation heats up. 

“It sort of feels like we always are [in the eye of the storm]. … It’s a challenge,” Kaine told The Hill. “It’s just like, ‘One more thing.’”

While the FBI fight has been going strong for months, the issue surrounding Reagan National and the impact on other DMV airports cropped up late last week, in the form of a proposed amendment to the FAA reauthorization bill would increase the number of flights out of DCA serving destinations outside of the 1,250-mile perimeter. 

At present, the airport has only 11 flights to cities outside that perimeter. The amendment, which is supported by both Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the panel’s ranking member, would add four flight slots for long-distance cities. A Thursday markup on the bill was scrapped as negotiations continue over an unrelated provision centered on airline pilot qualifications. 

However, the DMV-based senators are going to the mat to stop the amendment, saying they will use every tool available to them to defeat it. They penned an op-ed in The Washington Post on Thursday taking aim at the proposal, arguing that Reagan National is already bursting at the seams and cannot handle more flights without an increase in delays and longer lines. 

“It’s just an issue we’ve got to battle on,” Kaine said, noting that members are discussing a compromise amendment for inclusion in the FAA bill. “Warner and I just want to say, ‘Don’t screw around on it. It’s working right now. Please don’t screw around with it.’ We don’t like the compromise. … We have every option on the table.”

Those supportive of the amendment argue it should be easier to visit the nation’s capital. 

Left unsaid by supporters is that lawmakers widely prefer traveling out of DCA instead of either Dulles International Airport or Baltimore/Washington International Airport, both of which are better suited to handle long-distance flights but are further from the city.

Meanwhile, the FBI battle has put the group of Democratic senators in a spot they generally don’t find themselves: fighting one another. The push to find a new headquarters for the FBI has been roughly decadelong process that is nearing an end, with the General Services Administration expected to announce a locale in the near future. It is considering a site in Northern Virginia and two in Prince George’s County, Maryland. 

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) tossed a wrench into the push in recent weeks by expressing support for eliminating funding for the effort over the FBI’s role in the indictment of former President Trump. 

However, Democrats still find it hard to believe that it would be excluded altogether. 

“[Kaine] and I both believe the idea that somehow the whole notion of the FBI building is going to be held hostage is evident that a lot of House members have never visited the FBI headquarters that literally is falling in on itself,” Warner told The Hill. “It’s never a dull time.” 

Virginia seemed to gain an advantage this week, as an FBI document showed that the Bureau prefers the new headquarters be located close to its training academy in Quantico, Va., upsetting those in the Old Line State.

Senators in both delegations acknowledged the moderate high-wire act they are pulling off in the series of talks as they deal with issues that come with representing states that encircle the District. 

“We obviously have very different views on the best home for the FBI,” Van Hollen said, noting that the locations in Prince George’s County would cost taxpayers roughly $1 billion less than those in Virginia.

“In Congress, part of the job is working together as allies on one project where we have mutual interests, and duking it out where you don’t,” Van Hollen added.