FBI Director Kash Patel announced Friday that the bureau’s longtime headquarters at the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C., will be permanently shut down—ending decades of failed plans to modernize or replace the aging facility.
Rather than relocating to Maryland, as previously proposed under the Biden administration, FBI employees will move into the Ronald Reagan Building, occupying space formerly used by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). That agency was dismantled earlier this year under the Trump administration as part of a broader government reorganization.
“After more than 20 years of failed attempts, we finalized a plan to permanently close the FBI’s Hoover headquarters and move the workforce into a safe, modern facility,” Patel wrote in a post on the social media platform X. “Working directly with President Trump and Congress, we accomplished what no one else could.”
Patel framed the move as both fiscally responsible and mission-focused.
“This decision puts resources where they belong: defending the homeland, crushing violent crime, and protecting national security,” he wrote. “It delivers better tools for today’s FBI workforce at a fraction of the cost. The Hoover Building will be shut down permanently.”
The decision marks a sharp break from plans approved during the Biden administration, which called for a new, consolidated FBI campus to be built in Maryland following a lengthy bidding process.
Democratic lawmakers from Maryland have sharply criticized the reversal, arguing that Congress had already authorized and funded the move.
“Not only was this decision final, the Congress appropriated funds specifically for the purpose of the new, consolidated campus to be built in Maryland,” members of the state’s Democratic congressional delegation said in a July statement.
They further claimed that relocating the headquarters within Washington, D.C., would fail to meet the bureau’s long-term security needs, adding that the administration was “undermining Congressional intent” and “dealing a blow to the men and women of the FBI.”
Last month, the state of Maryland filed suit against the Trump administration, alleging it improperly diverted $555 million in funding when it announced the change in plans after the multiyear site selection process.
“These actions flouted Congress’s explicit direction to choose a site from the three specified sites, as well as other specific statutory directives concerning the selection of the site and the use of the funds,” the lawsuit states.
Administration officials, however, argue the new plan avoids years of additional delays and escalating costs, while immediately placing FBI personnel into a secure, modern facility—ending what Patel described as more than two decades of bureaucratic paralysis.
This article originally appeared on Official Trump Tracker. It is republished with permission.
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