FBI Director Kash Patel announced on Dec. 26 that the agency would be permanently shutting down the J. Edgar Hoover Building, which has served as the agency’s headquarters for roughly 50 years.
He said the agency would immediately begin transitioning to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, which is just blocks away in Washington.
“We selected the already-existing Reagan Building, saving billions and allowing the transition to begin immediately with required safety and infrastructure upgrades already underway,” Patel said.
Built in the 1970s, the Hoover Building served as a new location for the FBI, which was previously located in the Department of Justice’s building.
During questioning from senators before his confirmation this year, Patel told Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) that he was trying to “highlight” a “significantly greater point” about the number of FBI employees who work in Washington. He went on to say that he was committed to having the workforce in Washington “go out into the interior of the country … and work with sheriffs’ departments and local officers.”
Coons replied, “If that had been your statement, that would be something that would be defensible. It’s the rest of it, saying you’re going to turn it into a museum of the deep state, that causes repeated questions and concerns from people like myself.”
“Look, the FBI has 38,000 when we’re fully manned, which we’re not,” he said in May. “In the national capital region, in the 50-mile radius around Washington, D.C., there were 11,000 FBI employees. That’s like a third of the workforce. A third of the crime doesn’t happen here, so we’re taking 1,500 of those folks and moving them out.”
“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,” the senators said. “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.”
By contrast, Patel said the relocation was a win for taxpayers, who he said were set to pay billions for a new headquarters that wouldn’t open until 2035.
“This decision puts resources where they belong: defending the homeland, crushing violent crime, and protecting national security,” he said. “It delivers better tools for today’s FBI workforce at a fraction of the cost.”