WASHINGTON — Citing Redstone Arsenal as a “premier experienced law enforcement capability center and training facility,” FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau will send 500 employees to Huntsville by the end of the year.
Patel made the comments Wednesday in a Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee hearing focused on the agency’s budget requests.
U.S. Rep. Dale Strong, committee vice chair, spoke with Patel and questioned him on Huntsville’s role in keeping Americans safe.
Patel recently visited Huntsville for a tour of the facilities which house more than 2,000 employees representing 20 of the bureau’s 30 sections.
“What I saw while I was there was the best example of what I see when appropriators work with the bureau to defend the nation and I wish everybody would go down to Huntsville, Alabama,” Patel said. “It is our premier – premier – experienced law enforcement capability center and training facility that the interagency only wishes they had.”
He said, instead of rebuilding and expanding in Washington, the bureau can do it for half the cost in Huntsville and he cited the technical expertise of the other federal agencies on Redstone.
“What we have down there in cyber, in long-range missile defense capabilities, nested there with NASA and the Department of Defense and further programs, including our terrorism explosive device center, which the world relies on to stop bombs from going off … so much more is down in Huntsville, Alabama,” Patel said. ” … the DHS, the DOD and every other intelligence agency we have, they’re already asking us ‘When do we get to go to Redstone?’
“So, I encourage everyone to go down there.”
Strong (R-Huntsville) echoed Patel in citing the area’s cost-effective location and partnership opportunities and touted the “high quality of life for personnel and remarkable talent.”
“… could you expand on the plans for moving personnel and programs to Huntsville, as it’s often called FBIHQ2?” he asked. “What are the timelines for executing this and do you have the necessary resources to execute this move?”
Patel said the bureau needs additional funding for the move to accommodate several hundred employees transferring to Redstone.
“The North Campus is largely constructed and filled. The South Campus land has been leveled, and the plots have been mapped out,” he said. “In order to fill it, and in order to build buildings three and four and five as we call them and the new training facilities — that we and the appropriators have already looked into and approved — we’re going to need another $160 million to accomplish that.
“And once those buildings are built in the next three years, we will move another 1,300, maybe it’s 1,400, employees down to Huntsville.”
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