Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida on Wednesday lost a battle to deny the FBI a new $4 billion headquarters.
But the Fort Walton Beach Republican vowed that his war against the Biden administration’s efforts to weaponize the federal government against conservative Americans is far from over.
According to Gaetz’s office, the House, with a considerable number of Republicans siding with Democrats, rejected the congressman’s bill to block funding for the FBI to acquire land for its new headquarters. The vote to fund the project was 273-145.
Seventy Republicans joined 203 Democrats to defeat Gaetz’s amendment. That list included four GOP lawmakers from Florida: Reps. Vern Buchanan of Sarasota, Laurel Lee of Tampa, and Mario Diaz-Balart and Maria Salazar, both of Miami.
Read: Trump Rips GOP Debate During Rally In Florida ‘They’re Not Watchable’
“Time after time we have seen the FBI target President [Donald] Trump, people who believe in the Second Amendment, parents attending school board meetings, and more recently, some of their own brave FBI whistleblowers who have spoken up about the weaponization of our Federal Government,” Gaetz said in a statement.
“We should not be awarding nefarious behavior by wasting hundreds of millions of dollars for a new headquarters in the DC area.”
“Although my amendment failed,” he continued, “I will continue my fight to defang and defund government agencies that have been weaponized against the American people.”
As the Tampa Free Press reported in March, President Joe Biden unveiled a plan to build a new FBI headquarters in either Maryland or Virginia.
Biden’s budget estimated spending $233 million a year for the next 15 years. Lumped in with $645 million already allotted for the project, the FBI’s new campus, which is intended to accommodate 7,500 employees, would cost taxpayers more than $4 billion.
During floor debate of his amendment, Gaetz noted that the FBI seeks a facility that is larger than the Pentagon, even though the Defense Department’s workforce is 98% larger.
Gaetz also noted that much of the FBI’s “nefarious” activity in targeting Republicans and conservatives was driven by the agency’s brass in Washington.
“Building a new headquarters would condone, reinforce and enable the Washington field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s nefarious behavior. We shouldn’t do it,” said Gaetz.
One Republican, Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas, noted that lawmakers were not always going to “hate” the FBI, and that after touring its “crumbling” headquarters, he was convinced to support a new facility.
“It is not my grave concern that the FBI’s building is crumbling. It is my grave concern that the civil liberties of Americans are crumbling,” Gaetz said in a rebuttal, “and I wish we were more worried about that and less worried about whether or not we got new carpet and wallpaper at the FBI building.”
“The FBI itself is in a state of disrepair,” he added. “I think those folks deserve to sit in a rat-infested J. Edgar Hoover Building until they get their act straight with Americans’ civil liberties.”
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