The federal government has canceled a plan to relocate the FBI from the J. Edgar Hoover Building to a new headquarters, according to a report Monday night.
The Washington Post reported officials from the General Services Administration on Tuesday plan to announce the end to the decades-long search for a new building in a phone call with bidders and meetings on Capitol Hill.
Over the years, the Obama and Trump administrations have tried to persuade Congress to support a plan for a new campus in the Washington suburbs that would be funded by trading the deteriorating Hoover building to a real estate developer. Nearly $2 billion in taxpayer money would have funded the remaining cost under that plan, the Post reported.
The three final locations that were considered for the FBI’s relocation were in either Greenbelt, Md., Landover, Md., or Springfield, Va.
Citing officials and executives involved in the process, the Post said the uncertain leadership status at the FBI and General Services Administration contributed to the government’s decision to abandon the plan.
President Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, Christopher Wray, has not yet been confirmed by the Senate and Trump has not appointed a permanent administrator of the General Services Administration.
FBI employees have been housed inside the J. Edgar Hoover Building, named after the former longtime director of the bureau, since 1974.
