FBI to Stay in Downtown DC
WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation has selected the site of its new headquarters and the big news is, it’s literally just down the street from its current building.
On Tuesday, the agency and the General Services Administration announced the FBI is headed up Pennsylvania Avenue to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.
In doing so, GSA Public Buildings Service Commissioner Michael Peters called the new site, which is currently home to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, among other tenants, a “world-class location.”
Peters also noted that moving into the Ronald Reagan Building, which was previously home to the now shuttered U.S. Agency for International Development, will save Americans “billions of dollars” in new construction and more than $300 million in “deferred maintenance costs” at the FBI’s current home, the J. Edgar Hoover Building.
“This is a historic moment for the FBI,” said FBI Director Kash Patel in a written statement.
“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,” Patel continued.
“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 said.
Issues at the J. Edgar Hoover Building have included everything from an aging water system to concrete falling off the structure, said GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian.
Tuesday’s announcement follows more than 15 years of debate and controversy, and formally reverses an earlier decision to relocate the FBI to Greenbelt, Maryland.
Maryland won the bid to have the headquarters built in Greenbelt in November 2023.
However, the move was delayed after a federal watchdog launched an investigation into how the Biden administration chose the site.
President Donald Trump had indicated earlier this year that he planned to put the kibosh on that plan.
Speaking at the Justice Department in March, Trump said, “We’re not going to let that happen. We’re going to build another big FBI building right where it is, which would have been the right place because the FBI and the DOJ have to be near each other.”
The Justice Department is located right across the street from the J. Edgar Hoover Building and within walking distance of the Ronald Reagan Building.
“The FBI and the DOJ work together. Now in my case they worked together for bad purposes, but they do,” he joked. “They were always together. So how can you have one that’s three hours away?”
Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue
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