Plans to move FBI headquarters to Reagan Building blocked by federal judge 

A federal judge in Maryland is blocking the Trump administration’s plans to relocate the FBI headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington, D.C. 

This marks the latest twist in a nearly 15-year saga of several administrations trying to replace the FBI’s crumbling J. Edgar Hoover Building with a new headquarters, and unwinding the decisions made by prior leaders. 

The General Services Administration under the Biden administration selected Greenbelt, Md., from a list of three shortlisted sites as the future home of a suburban FBI headquarters. But the Trump administration scrapped those plans in 2025, opting instead to move the FBI to the Reagan Building.

The first Trump administration pushed for demolishing the Hoover Building and constructing a new headquarters in its place. But Democratic lawmakers ultimately blocked funding for these plans. 

U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang on Monday granted a permanent injunction on Monday that will prevent the administration from moving forward on plans to relocate the FBI headquarters to the nearby Reagan building or tapping into funds Congress already approved for the project. 

Chuang noted that in prior spending bills, Congress required that GSA must select Greenbelt or one of the two other sites on its shortlist. 

“On their face, these statutory mandates preclude the GSA from choosing a different site, such as the Reagan Building,” he wrote. 

The FBI said in a statement that "this is not the first time courts have tried to undermine the administration in its goal to make government more cost-effective for American taxpayers."  

"The court has chosen to impermissibly intervene for political reasons. This FBI is mission-focused and will continue the best course of action to meet the needs of law enforcement," the agency said. 

The lawsuit is led by the State of Maryland and Prince George’s County. Maryland’s Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a statement that, “by blocking the Trump Administration’s unlawful attempt to move the FBI to the Reagan Building and divert the funds Congress set aside for this project, the Court has cleared the path back to Greenbelt.” 

Congress passed a FY 2026 spending deal stating that unspent funds set aside for the FBI headquarters project “may not be further obligated until the FBI submits a "completed architectural and engineering plan” to the House and Senate appropriations committees. 

“To date, no such architectural and engineering plan has been submitted,” Chuang wrote. 

Chuang also noted that the FY 2026 spending package makes no specific reference to an FBI headquarters at the Reagan Building “and contains no language approving of it.”

A GSA prospectus approved by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last fall estimates that it will cost $1.4 billion to retrofit the Reagan Building to accommodate the FBI. 

GSA planned to fund the Reagan retrofit with $844 million in unused money provided to the agency in past appropriations bills for construction of a new FBI headquarters as well as $555 million given over the years to the FBI for a new headquarters. GSA expected alterations to the Reagan Building would be complete in fiscal 2030. 

Administration officials told the court that plans for an FBI headquarters in Greenbelt would likely face opposition from a Republican-controlled Congress. 

“The court cannot find that there is no realistic possibility that the consolidated FBI headquarters project will proceed at the Greenbelt site, particularly given that the composition of the relevant congressional committees, and the priorities expressed by their members, are not static,” Chuang wrote.