Written by Eric Tucker
Washington (AP)The FBI said on Tuesday that it would relocate its headquarters in Washington, which has been there for five decades, a few streets away.
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Following years of back and forth over the placement of the nation’s top federal law enforcement agency’s headquarters, the bureau and the General Services Administration announced that the Ronald Reagan Building complex had been chosen as the new site.
When such a shift may occur and what logistical obstacles might need to be overcome to make it happen were not immediately apparent.
The statement was described as a historic milestone for the FBI by FBI Director Kash Patel, who in his first few months on the job has overseen a drastic reorganization of the bureau that has involved relocating a large number of workers from Washington to Alabama.
The decision marks a reversal of plans to relocate the FBI to a location in Maryland’s Greenbelt that were announced during the Biden administration. There was fierce competition between the two states, and the suburban Washington site was chosen over neighboring Virginia.
The J. Edgar Hoover Building, the FBI’s present headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, was dedicated in 1975. The Brutalist-style building, which has nets surrounding it to shield people from falling debris, has deteriorated, according to those who support transferring the headquarters. For years, there have been talks about moving it.
In a joint statement, the FBI and GSA claimed that by relocating the headquarters to an existing facility a few blocks away, they would avoid having to build a brand-new structure in suburban Washington, which they said would have taken years and been expensive for taxpayers.
GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian stated in a statement that the FBI’s current headquarters at the Hoover building is a prime example of a federal building that has accumulated years of neglected maintenance, with issues ranging from an aged water system to concrete crumbling off the structure.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is one of the tenants of the Reagan Building. Additionally, it was the location of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which ceased operations as an independent agency on Monday.
