The US$2 billion search for a new FBI headquarters was just called off
Bureau says current location at ageing J. Edgar Hoover building had raised security concerns
The government is cancelling its decade-long search for a new FBI headquarters, The Washington Post reported, forcing the agency to stay at its deteriorating facility in Washington, DC.
Federal officials have attempted for years to secure Congressional support for a new FBI campus in the Washington suburbs, The Post reported. The plan would have cost US$2 billion in taxpayer funds.
The FBI had been pushing the plan for years as its current home, the J. Edgar Hoover building, shows its age. Completed in 1975, the building’s concrete has begun to crack in places, The Post wrote, and its outdated and inefficient structure has begun to threaten the FBI’s ability to fight modern threats like cyber crime and international terrorism.
Officials with the General Services Administration, which oversees government real estate, are expected to formally announce the decision Tuesday.
The officials told The Post that the lack of permanent leadership at their agency as well as the FBI contributed to the plan falling through. President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace former FBI Director James Comey, Christopher Wray, has not been confirmed, while Trump has yet to appoint a GSA administrator.