The FBI has chosen the Ronald Reagan Building complex in Washington, D.C., as its new headquarters, the bureau announced.
The decision overrides a Biden administration directive to move the headquarters to Greenbelt, Maryland.
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“This is a historic moment for the FBI,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a press release. “Through our strong partnerships with members of Congress and GSA, we are ushering FBI Headquarters into a new era and providing our agents of justice a safer place to work. 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,” he added.
President Donald Trump previously signaled his intention to cancel the Biden administration’s plans to move the headquarters “three hours away” to Greenbelt. The current FBI headquarters is only about 10 miles from Greenbelt.
“They were going to build an FBI headquarters three hours away in Maryland, a liberal state,” Trump said. “But that has no bearing on what I’m about to say. We’re going to stop it. I’m not going to let that happen.”
The decision to move to a pre-existing complex aligns with the Trump administration’s cost-saving goal. Building a new complex in Maryland would’ve cost billions.
The administration cited the degradation of the current FBI complex as a reason for the move.
“FBI’s existing headquarters at the Hoover building is a great example of a government building that has accumulated years of deferred maintenance, suffering from an aging water system to concrete falling off the structure,” General Services Administration acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian said. “I am proud of the GSA’s commitment to working with Director Patel and his FBI team to find a building that best supports their mission and their people.”
The new FBI headquarters is less than a mile away from the former headquarters at the J. Edgar Hoover Building. The FBI called the Ronald Reagan complex a “world-class facility that supports the FBI’s critical mission and saves money for taxpayers.”
It also houses the now-shuttered U.S. Agency for International Development along with several other agencies like U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
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In a memo to employees, Patel said the Hoover building will be “shut down.” Patel also said the Hoover building is “unsafe for our workforce.”
“If you’re going to come work at the premier law enforcement agency in the world, we’re going to give you a building that’s commensurate with that, and that’s not this place,” he said.