Full List of Republicans Backing Matt Gaetz's Bid to Block FBI's New HQ

By Andrew Stanton On 3/21/23 at 3:54 PM EDT

News U.S. Politics FBI House Republicans GOP

Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, on Tuesday introduced legislation aimed at blocking the construction of a new headquarters for the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).

Gaetz, who serves on the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, announced that he would introduce the bill to prevent the construction on Tuesday, pointing to evidence uncovered during the subcommittee suggesting the FBI is "targeting Americans who oppose their corrupt political agenda."

Congress last year passed a $1.7 trillion spending bill that appropriated funding to build a new headquarters in either Maryland or Virginia. The legislation has been met with criticism from conservatives, who have accused the agency of unjustly targeting former President Donald Trump after agents seized classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago residence last August.

"The cancer at the Washington Field Office has metastasized so large that the entire body is in critical condition," Gaetz said in a statement announcing the new legislation. "Gifting the FBI a new headquarters larger than the Pentagon would condone, reinforce, and enable their nefarious behavior to levels we have never seen before."

List of Republicans backing Gaetz's FBI bill — Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, in the U.S. Capitol on October 30, 2019. In inset, the FBI crest on August 3, 2007, inside the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building in Washington, D.C. Gaetz on Tuesday unveiled legislation aimed at blocking the construction of a new FBI headquarters in Maryland or Virginia. MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images; Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Gaetz's bill specifically accused the FBI's Washington office of attempting to "pressure" other FBI field offices "for no good law enforcement reason, but to advance a political agenda. The bill's text also says the FBI has suppressed "credible investigative leads into criminal conduct" and has "initiative investigations into American citizens for exercising their First Amendment rights."

An FBI spokesperson previously told Newsweek why the agency views the construction of a new headquarters as a necessity.

"Key components of the building's infrastructure have reached the end of their useful lives," the spokesperson said in December. "Further, new HQ facilities would allow the FBI to consolidate portions of its national capital region workforce, which is currently scattered across multiple leased locations."