After more than a decade of haggling over efforts to move the FBI’s headquarters to the Washington suburbs, federal officials announced Tuesday it will remain in Washington, but at a newer location.
The bureau’s thousands of agents who now work in the crumbling J. Edgar Hoover Building on Pennsylvania Avenue will move up the street, literally, to the more recently constructed Ronald Reagan Building.
The announcement angered lawmakers in Virginia and Maryland, who had been working for years to lure the FBI to the suburbs, which would bring new revenue, more than 7,500 jobs and an economic boost from a newly constructed headquarters.
It is a blow to Greenbelt, Maryland, which in 2023 was chosen by the GSA as the location for the new FBI headquarters. Virginia lawmakers contested the GSA’s pick, hoping to lure the building across the Potomac River.
Instead of either location, the Government Services Administration, the government’s landlord, found that the partially empty Reagan Building had enough room for the FBI and would save the government billions of dollars.
The Reagan building once housed U.S. Agency for International Development, but the Trump administration gutted the agency this year. Customs and Border Protection and a few other tenants now use the building.
It opened in 1998 and, at 3.1 million square feet, is the largest building in the District as well as the largest federal building in the nation after the Pentagon.
“This move not only provides a world-class location for the FBI’s public servants, but it also saves Americans billions of dollars on new construction and avoids more than $300 million in deferred maintenance costs at the J. Edgar Hoover facility,” GSA Public Buildings Service Commissioner Michael Peters said in a statement.
The current FBI headquarters was completed in 1975 and is falling apart. Netting is rigged to the building to catch falling chunks of concrete.
President Trump has long opposed moving the FBI out of Washington and in March halted the move to Greenbelt, saying it was too far away. FBI Director Kash Patel said earlier this year its headquarters would remain in the city to keep the bureau near the Department of Justice.
Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, Virginia Democrats, said the Reagan Building is a mismatch for the FBI’s needs.
“Moving the FBI from the Hoover Building to the 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. This announcement brushes aside years of careful planning, ignores the recommendations of security and mission experts, and raises serious concerns about how this decision was made,” they said.
Mr. Patel said Tuesday that moving to the Reagan Building will provide agents with a safer place to work while saving money.
“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,” Mr. Patel said.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.