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The directorate of the FBI has declared a major move: the agency will permanently close its longtime headquarters and move personnel to other facilities.

A New Chapter for the Top Law Enforcement Organization

According to a latest announcement, the aging J. Edgar Hoover Building, a fixture in downtown DC, will be closed permanently. The workforce will be based in existing offices elsewhere.

This operational shift will see a portion of agents and staff moving into offices within the Reagan Building, which was once the home of another government department.

“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 secure and contemporary building,” the announcement said.

Fiscal Responsibility and Homeland Defense Focus

The decision is positioned as a way to better allocate funding. Leadership stated that this plan focuses spending appropriately: on defending the homeland, fighting crime, and safeguarding the country.

It is also touted as providing the agency's personnel with enhanced capabilities for much less money compared to renovating the current headquarters.

Legal Challenges and the Headquarters' History

This announcement comes after previous legal disputes concerning the bureau's future home. Earlier, state leaders had filed a lawsuit over the termination of an earlier proposal to move the headquarters to their jurisdiction, arguing that money had already been set aside by Congress for that relocation.

The J. Edgar Hoover Building itself is a notable example of concrete-heavy architecture, planned and erected in the mid-20th century. Its aesthetic has long been a point of criticism, as it broke with the design tradition of most federal buildings in the city.

Its own former director, J. Edgar Hoover, was reportedly critical of the building, once lambasting it as “the ugliest building ever built in the city of Washington.”