The FBI is vacating its longtime headquarters, the iconic J. Edgar Hoover Building, for a new home in downtown Washington. The move to the nearby Ronald Reagan Building scuttles plans to relocate the bureau to suburban Maryland.
The decision ends years of political jockeying over where to locate the nation’s most prominent federal law enforcement agency. Lawmakers from Maryland and Virginia promoted competing sites, and President Donald Trump once proposed downsizing the bureau’s presence in Washington and moving thousands of FBI employees to remote offices in Alabama, Idaho, and West Virginia.
An announcement from the FBI did not specify when the move would occur or the associated costs. However, FBI Director Kash Patel described the decision to relocate as “a historic moment.”
“We are ushering FBI Headquarters into a new era and providing our agents of justice a safer place to work,” Patel said. “Moving to the Ronald Reagan Building is the most cost effective and resource efficient way to carry out our mission to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution.”
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The J. Edgar Hoover Building was the home of the FBI for 50 years. The bureau plans to move to the Ronald Reagan Building, three blocks away in downtown Washington.
Trump opposed move to Maryland
The relocation decision overrides plans approved by the Biden administration in 2023 to build a new FBI headquarters in Greenbelt, Maryland, about 15 miles northeast of downtown Washington.
Top FBI officials had favored a site in Washington’s Virginia suburbs. However, the General Services Administration, the government’s real estate arm, overruled them.
When he returned to the White House this year, Trump, who has been at odds with FBI leaders for most of the past decade, made it clear he wanted to keep the headquarters in the capital, according to The Washington Post.
“They were going to build an FBI headquarters three hours away in Maryland, a liberal state,” Trump said in a speech in March. Although he said the state’s politics had “no bearing” on his decision, he added: “We’re going to stop it. We’re not going to let that happen.”
‘Hasty, improvised approach’
Political leaders from both Maryland and Virginia denounced the decision to keep the FBI headquarters in Washington.
“The FBI deserves a headquarters that meets their security and mission needs – and following an extensive, thorough, and transparent process, Greenbelt, Maryland, was selected as the site that best meets those requirements,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, said in a statement that his office released to Straight Arrow News. “Not only was this decision final, the Congress appropriated funds specifically for the purpose of the new, consolidated campus to be built in Maryland.”
“Simply moving down the street would ignore the real threats the Bureau faces and further jeopardize the safety of those protecting our communities,” Moore added. “That’s why we will be fighting back against this proposal with every tool we have.”
Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, Democrats from Virginia who spent years promoting a site in their state for the headquarters, said moving to the Ronald Reagan Building “isn’t a plan, it’s a punt.”
“For years, Democratic and Republican administrations alike have agreed on the need for a secure, purpose-built headquarters that actually meets the FBI’s mission needs,” Warner and Kaine said in a statement.
“The law enforcement and intelligence professionals of the FBI deserve more than a hasty, improvised approach,” they added.
From ‘ugliest’ to most expensive
The Brutalist edifice of the 50-year-old Hoover Building, named for the FBI’s first director, is familiar to generations of television and movie viewers. However, as the structure has aged, it has been described as “decrepit,” “crumbling” and “rundown.” It is also considered one of the ugliest buildings in the United States.
In a statement, Stephen Ehikian, the acting director of the General Services Administration, said that leaving the Hoover Building was necessary due to “accumulated years of deferred maintenance” that left the structure with an aging water system and concrete that is falling off its facade.
Three blocks away, the Ronald Reagan Building opened in 1998. At the time, its $768 million price tag made it the most expensive federal building ever constructed.
The building was the home of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which formally ceased operations on Tuesday, July 1. It also houses the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and has private-sector tenants, as well as event space available for rent.
At 3.1 million square feet, it is about 10% larger than the FBI’s current headquarters.
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Author: Alan Judd
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