FBI to stay in D.C., will move from Hoover to Reagan buildings

The FBI will move its headquarters from the J. Edgar Hoover Building to the Ronald Reagan Building, a decision that keeps the federal law enforcement agency in Washington, D.C.

Announced Tuesday by the FBI and the U.S. General Services Administration, the relocation of the FBI’s headquarters puts a cap on a yearslong saga that involved infighting among Virginia, Maryland and the District, as well as the involvement of three presidential administrations, beginning with former President Barack Obama.

“This is a historic moment for the FBI,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement Tuesday. “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.”

During the Obama administration, the GSA began evaluating new homes for the FBI, which has been housed since the 1970s in the deteriorating Hoover building at 935 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. In 2013, localities in Northern Virginia proposed multiple locations for a new building, but it took until 2016 for the GSA to come down to three finalists, including one location in Springfield and two in Prince George’s County.

Then came President Donald Trump’s first term in 2017, when all progress on moving the FBI halted, as Trump said he had no interest in moving the agency to a new, billion-dollar complex. However, with the 2020 election of President Joe Biden, the three locations in Maryland and Virginia were reconsidered.

In late 2023, the GSA announced it had chosen Greenbelt, Maryland, as the FBI headquarters’ new location — an announcement that infuriated U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, who called it a “corrupt” process after former FBI Director Christopher Wray wrote to the entire agency that a political appointee to the GSA had overridden a three-person panel’s unanimous recommendation to build the new headquarters in Springfield.

Warner, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, Gov. Glenn Youngkin and almost all of Virginia’s congressional delegation called for a reversal of the decision, condemning “political interference” in the site selection.

But then, Trump was re-elected in 2024, and he called off the move to Maryland, and that leads us back to Tuesday’s news. Formerly home to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which was dismantled and put out of business by the Trump administration, the Reagan complex at 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, was completed in 1998 and houses the U.S. Customs and Border Protection headquarters and private tenants, according to the FBI-GSA announcement.

“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,” said GSA Public Buildings Service Commissioner Michael Peters. “We are proud to partner with Director Patel to drive efficiency and improve the quality of space for a productive workforce in service to national security and taxpayers.”

Warner and Kaine, both Democrats, criticized the decision in a joint statement Tuesday: “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.

“Unfortunately, it fits a broader pattern from this administration — one marked by indiscriminate firings, canceled leases, and a general disregard for the federal workforce.”