After 50 years in the J. Edgar Hoover Building in downtown Washington, D.C., the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will move headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building.
The announcement, made July 1 and reported by USA Today, was made by FBI Director Kash Patel regarding where more than 1,500 FBI personnel will be based out of in the United States.
“This is a historic moment for the FBI. 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,” Patel said.
Patel originally mentioned in May 2025 plans to move the FBI headquarters, which has been more than 20 years in the making. Federal officials said the Hoover building is aging and the agency requires more space to meet its mission and workforce requirements. Patel has mentioned the Hoover building at 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW becoming a “deep state” museum.
According to U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian, the Hoover building’s maintenance has been deferred, as well as an aging water system and concrete falling from the structure.
“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,” Ehikian said.
The FBI will move to the Reagan building, former home of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the principal American agency that extended aid to countries recovering from disaster. The Trump Administration dismantled the Agency for International Development.
Approximately 11,000 of 38,000 FBI staff have been headquartered within a 50-mile radius of Washington, D.C.
“It’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,” Patel said in spring 2025.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and others have called the Reagan building at 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW home. The Reagan building will provide “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,” according to GSA Public Buildings Service Commissioner Michael Peters.
“The GSA will continue to support and work with CBP on space that allows them to fulfill their mission while the transition of the FBI to the Reagan Building commences,” the FBI and GSA wrote in the announcement.
However, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner, Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Tim Kaine, who both represent Virginia, said the move is not a plan but “a punt” and that the FBI’s law enforcement and intelligence professionals “deserve more than a hasty, improvised approach.”
“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,” Warner and Kaine said in a statement.
The Virginia senators said the FBI’s law enforcement and intelligence professionals “deserve a facility that matches the gravity of their work to keep Americans safe.”
Hoover, the first director of the FBI, founded the agency in 1935 and served as director until his death in 1972. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Hoover was a law enforcement administrator and attorney before founding the FBI. Hoover’s career and personal life were later the focus of controversy, including rumors that he was gay.
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Rebecca Barnabi
