Proposed NSA Headquarters Expansion Under Review
The National Security Agency is proposing to expand and modernize its headquarters site at Fort Meade, Maryland.
“For NSA/CSS to continue leading the Intelligence Community into the next 50 years with state-of-the-art technologies and productivity, its mission elements require new, centralized facilities and infrastructure,” according to a newly released Final Environmental Impact Statement for the site.
Under the proposed action, “The NSA would consolidate mission elements, which would enable grouping services and support services across the NSA Campus based on function; facilitate a more collaborative environment and optimal adjacencies; and provide administrative capacity for up to 13,300 personnel, including 6,100 personnel who currently work on the existing NSA Campus and 7,200 personnel currently located off site.”
The proposal envisions the construction and operation of “approximately 2,880,000 square feet of operational complex and headquarters space consisting of five buildings.” If approved, construction would take place “over a period of approximately 10 years (FY 2019 to 2029).”
See Final Environmental Impact Statement for the East Campus Integration Program, Fort Meade, Maryland, March 2017 (large pdf).
At a time when universities are already facing intense pressure to re-envision their role in the S&T ecosystem, we encourage NSF to ensure that the ambitious research acceleration remains compatible with their expertise.
FAS CEO Daniel Correa recently spoke with Adam Marblestone and Sam Rodriques, former FAS fellows who developed the idea for FROs and advocated for their use in a 2020 policy memo.
In a year when management issues like human capital, IT modernization, and improper payments have received greater attention from the public, examining this PMA tells us a lot about where the Administration’s policy is going to be focused through its last three years.
Congress must enact a Digital Public Infrastructure Act, a recognition that the government’s most fundamental responsibility in the digital era is to provide a solid, trustworthy foundation upon which people, businesses, and communities can build.