Latest news with #RonaldReaganBuilding
New York Times
01-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
F.B.I. Moving Into Building That Housed U.S.A.I.D.
The F.B.I. said on Monday that it would leave its crumbling headquarters and move into a nearby building vacated by the U.S. Agency for International Development, keeping the bureau in downtown Washington. The decision to decamp to the Ronald Reagan Building potentially ends years of jockeying by legislators to relocate the country's premier law enforcement agency — and possibly thousands of federal employees — to a suburban location in either Maryland or Virginia. The F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, hailed the cost savings of moving his agency's headquarters down the street after the White House proposed cutting the bureau's budget by about half a billion dollars, putting it on a spending level last seen in 2011. The announcement was short on details, including when the move would begin and the overall cost. 'We are ushering F.B.I. headquarters into a new era and providing our agents of justice a safer place to work,' Mr. Patel said in a statement. '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.' Michael Peters, the public buildings service commissioner at the General Services Administration, which oversees federal real estate, said the repurposing of the U.S.A.I.D. headquarters would save billions of dollars on new construction and more than $300 million in deferred maintenance costs at the old F.B.I. building. As part of President Trump's efforts to overhaul the federal government, the global aid agency was gutted and its headquarters emptied earlier this year in a tumultuous series of events that dismantled an institution established more than a half century ago as a linchpin of U.S. foreign policy. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
FBI says it plans to move headquarters to different location in Washington
WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI announced Tuesday that it planned to move its Washington headquarters several blocks away from its current five-decade-old home. The bureau and the General Services Administration said the Ronald Reagan Building complex had been selected as the new location, the latest development in a yearslong back-and-forth over where the nation's premier federal law enforcement agency should have its headquarters. It was not immediately clear when such a move might take place or what sort of logistical hurdles might need to be cleared in order to accomplish it. FBI Director Kash Patel, who in his first months on the job has presided over a dramatic restructuring of the bureau that has included moving to relocate significant numbers of employees from Washington to Alabama, called the announcement 'a historic moment for the FBI." The decision represents a turnabout from plans announced during the Biden administration to move the FBI to a site in Greenbelt, Maryland. The suburban Washington location was selected over nearby Virginia following a sharp competition between the two states. The FBI's current Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, was dedicated in 1975. Proponents of moving the headquarters have said the Brutalist-style building, where nets surround the facility to protect pedestrians from falling debris, has fallen into disrepair. Discussions have been underway for years to relocate it. The FBI and GSA said in a joint statement that moving the headquarters just a few blocks away to an existing property would avert the need to construct a brand-new building in suburban Washington, which they said would have taken years and been costly for taxpayers. 'FBI's existing headquarters at the Hoover building is a great example of a government building that has accumulated years of deferred maintenance, suffering from an aging water system to concrete falling off the structure,' GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian said in a statement. The Reagan Building houses, among other tenants, U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It also had been home to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which on Monday marked its last day as an independent agency.
Bloomberg
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
FBI to Keep Headquarters in Washington as Lawmakers Protest
The Federal Bureau of Investigation plans to move its headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building complex in Washington, scuttling Biden administration plans approved by Congress to move the agency to the Maryland suburbs. The new location for the headquarters is about three blocks from the agency's current location, keeping FBI leaders and key personnel near the Justice Department, White House and other federal agencies.
CBS News
01-07-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
FBI announces move to new D.C. headquarters
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has selected a new headquarters building in Washington, D.C., after nearly two decades of failed attempts to find a permanent new space, the Bureau announced on Tuesday. The FBI has been headquartered in downtown D.C. at the J. Edgar Hoover building since 1975 but structural problems have plagued the building for the last 20 years, leading to redevelopment and relocation projects that until Thursday had not successfully been resolved. "This is a historic moment for the FBI," FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement, adding he is "ushering FBI Headquarters into a new era and providing our agents of justice a safer place to work." The Bureau and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) selected the Ronald Reagan Building, blocks away from the Hoover building, as the new location. It was home to the U.S. Agency for International Development until this year, when the Trump administration consolidated USAID into the State Department and allowed Customs and Border Protection to take over the building's lease. "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," Patel continued. It is unclear when the FBI will begin its transition out of the Hoover building. In a March speech at the Justice Department, President Trump said his administration is "going to build another big FBI building right where it is, which would have been the right place, because the FBI and the DOJ have to be near each other." "They were going to build an FBI headquarters three hours away in Maryland, a liberal state," Mr. Trump said, adding that the state's political leadership had "no bearing" on his decision to cancel a previous Biden administration plan to move the headquarters to Maryland. During his first term, Mr. Trump abandoned a plan to move the FBI to one of three locations in Maryland or Virginia, instead proposing a smaller headquarters in Washington to replace the Hoover building. Under the Biden administration in 2023, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) chose a site in Greenbelt, Maryland, to serve as the new location for the FBI headquarters. The decision came after a 15-year debate on whether the headquarters should be relocated to Maryland or Virginia. In May, Patel told Congress his goal is to move about 10% of the Bureau's Washington workforce — about 1,500 people — away from the D.C. area and redeploy them across the country, including a sizable number of personnel at the FBI's facility in Huntsville, Alabama. In an interview with Fox News the same month, Patel called the Hoover building "unsafe for our workforce."
Fox News
01-07-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Kash Patel to shut down FBI Hoover building, move HQ across DC to Ronald Reagan Building
EXCLUSIVE: FBI Director Kash Patel is shutting down the J. Edgar Hoover building and moving its headquarters across Washington to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, with President Donald Trump touting the move, telling Fox News Digital that the FBI "will finally have the kind of building they deserve." Fox News Digital exclusively obtained a Tuesday memo Patel sent to the FBI, notifying employees of the re-location, and stressing that it is "most cost-effective way" to serve the American people, Fox News Digital has learned. Patel, in May, first hinted that the bureau would be reallocating its workforce around the country, and would move agents out of the J. Edgar Hoover Building, which opened in 1975. The FBI and the General Services Administration (GSA) have been looking at options for a new FBI headquarters for more than a decade, including locations near D.C. in Maryland and Virginia. "Team, the FBI Headquarters will be moving down the street to the Ronald Reagan Building, and the Hoover building will be shut down," Patel wrote in the memo, exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital. Trump told Fox News Digital that the Ronald Reagan Building is "a wonderful building," and said the FBI is "a wonderful group of people." "The FBI will finally have the kind of building they deserve," the president told Fox News Digital. "Congratulations to Kash Patel, Dan Bongino and all the great people at the FBI." In the memo to the FBI, Patel said the bureau is "the world's premier law enforcement agency, and our headquarters will reflect that fact." "After nearly 20 years of constant churn surrounding the matter, we've finally gotten it done," Patel said, adding that the move "will be the most cost-effective way to best serve the American people while most efficiently using the resources available to us." Patel said that the move will also, simultaneously get "our awesome workforce, a modern, safe, and superior HQ location that will allow us to build for the future and maintain mission success while being tremendous stewards of taxpayer dollars." Patel told the FBI that he is working "closely with Congress and GSA" to make the move "happen quickly," but said there are "a lot of moving pieces." "We need to ensure our security and technology requirements are in place before HQ employees can begin making the move, in phases," Patel wrote. "Thanks in advance for your patience, and for staying the course." Patel added: "Please join me in celebrating this historic milestone for the FBI." Patel also thanked FBI officials and employees for "all you do for the country." "And welcome to your new FBI, and your new FBI HQ," Patel wrote. A source familiar with the decision-making told Fox News Digital that "the Hoover building is a dump and not just unsafe for the FBI workforce, but unsafe for the country's national security." In 2024, the General Services Administration said it would take more than a decade to build newly constructed FBI headquarters. "The FBI has long badly needed significant upgrades and after decades of debating, the president, administration and Director Patel are delivering — allowing the bureau to far better serve the American people at a much lower cost to taxpayers than the alternatives," the source told Fox News Digital. Patel has said the Hoover building is "unsafe for our workforce." "If you're going to come work at the premier law enforcement agency in the world, we're going to give you a building that's commensurate with that, and that's not this place," he said.
