FBI expansion builds without additional funding

Planned construction projects at the FBI’s Redstone Arsenal campus can continue despite no new construction funding in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget agreement, according to the agency.

Under the FY 2024 budget agreement, “no new construction funding is being provided to the FBI for national security and law enforcement mission functions in Huntsville, Alabama, compared to the $590 million of new funding provided in the FY 2023 FBI construction appropriation,” an official FBI statement released last week by FBI Redstone Public/Congressional Affairs Officer Alicia Irmscher said.

However, the FY 2024 budget agreement does not cut previously appropriated construction funding, according to the statement.

“Previously planned FBI construction activities in Huntsville are able to continue forward under the FY 2024 budget agreement, leveraging funds appropriated for FBI Huntsville facilities in FY 2023 and prior.”

A March 8 article in the New York Times reported that out of the $654 million lawmakers agreed to cut this year from the FBI’s operating budget, $622 million came from eliminating what was essentially an old earmark – money for construction at the FBI’s Redstone campus. According to the article, the funding was placed into the budget years ago by U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, who retired in 2022.

The FBI now has eight major construction projects – some with physical dirt moved, some in design, and some still in the planning phases. Of these eight construction projects, five are training venues, Irmscher said late last week.

The current “marquee project” is the Innovation Center and Kinetic Cyber Range, scheduled to be completed this summer, according to Irmscher. Other big projects now underway include Tech Buildings 2 and 3, a shared services warehouse and shipping and receiving expansion which will further aid the logistics capabilities of FBI Redstone.

“The Multi-purpose Range Complex and Practical Problem Venues are currently in design,” she said. “Upon completion, the range complex will be able to accommodate both small- and large-scale training events.” The Practical Problem Venues will provide a controlled, realistic, tech-forward testing and training environment for the FBI and its partners.

“The Academic Zone, as the name implies, will provide graduate-level classroom training and a complementary platform on which to complete advanced research,” she said. Another project, the National Security and Intelligence Center of Excellence, will be the centralized location for advanced training delivery, curriculum development and instructional design.

“The FBI is creating an ecosystem that will lead efforts to not only research and design new, unique training offerings, but will also create a realistic yet safe mock environment where the FBI can execute effective training scenarios,” she said.

The FBI statement noted that the FY 2024 budget agreement does present other significant challenges for the FBI.

Half – $32 million – of the FBI’s annual construction funding needed to operate and maintain the FBI Quantico campus in Virginia and sustain classified communications systems and space was cut, according to the statement.

“In addition, while the FBI’s FY 2024 salaries and expenses budget is $32 million less than FY 2023 levels, it is approximately $500 million less than what is required to sustain current operations in FY 2024 and does not account for the elevated threat environment.”

The base operations shortfall will degrade the FBI’s ability to counter threats of terrorism to the homeland and combat violent crime, drugs, gangs, and transnational organized crime, the statement said, and “reduce much needed funding to counter cyber attacks and counterintelligence activities.”