Published January 1992 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd Keeping the FBI and CIA On Track for West Virginia
To keep on schedule the relocation of the FBI's Fingerprint Identification Division to Harrison County and a number of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) offices to Jefferson County, I have urged the President to earmark $117 million in the 1993 Federal budget. The relocation of these facilities to West Virginia is important to the future of our state and nation, and must be kept on schedule to save money for American taxpayers and to increase the efficiency of both the FBI and the CIA. As Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I have added a total of $245.5 million in appropriations over the past two years to initiate the relocation to West Virginia, and the automation, of the FBI's Fingerprint Division. The Automated Fingerprint Identification System being planned and developed for the Harrison County facility is a major step forward in our national war against crime and drugs, and is urgently needed to permit the FBI to provide law enforcement, personnel throughout the nation with state-of-the-art technology. To keep this automation project on course, the FBI need~ $100 million in Fiscal Year 1993 --$50 million to acquire the computer hardware and software needed to start production of this advanced system, and another $50 million to convert the FBI's existing fingerprint cards from the current manual format to an electronic image format. Any delay in this process -- by even as little as one year -- could mean higher costs to the taxpayer. Last year, to acquire land for the CIA's plan to consolidate 21 leased offices in the Washington, D.C., area into two new compounds, including one in Jefferson County, I added $30 million to a defense appropriation bill. The $17 million for the CIA project that I am now urging for the new Federal budget includes second-year funding for architectural and engineering studies, and for community and environmental impact assessments. Together; the FBI and CIA facilities being relocated to West Virginia are projected to bring an estimated 4, 700 jobs to our state. Maintaining their planned construction schedules will benefit our country as well as the economy of West Virginia. January 29, 1992