Fairfax Supervisors continue to lobby for FBI Springfield location

With the weekend announcement of Kash Patel as President-elect Trump’s pick for the new FBI director, the state of the building and employees are in flux. Patel has vowed to close the building and disperse agents throughout the United States.

“I would make the current Hoover building into a museum,” he said. He added the department has too many bureaucrats and agents not actively out in the field but behind desks and needs to be pared down.

Patel was a federal prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice and previously Chief of Staff to the U.S. Secretary of Defense during the first Trump presidency. The selection is in keeping with Trump’s view that the government’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies require radical transformation.

Uncertain of what will happen with the headquarters when Trump comes into office, Fairfax County Supervisors are still pushing for a new building to be built in Springfield. As part of their 2025 legislative package slated for adoption tomorrow, the Supervisors continue saying Springfield is a better location than Greenbelt, Md.

The site at 6808 Loisdale Road is currently home to a General Services Administration warehouse, close to the headquarters of the Transportation Security Administration. The location provides easy access and close proximity to FBI training facilities in Quantico.

Three locations have been considered for the new headquarters, which need to be built because the current FBI building is aging and overcrowded. Springfield, Greenbelt and Landover, Md. were selected as desirable locations.

The FBI’s headquarters at the J. Edgar Hoover building is aging and built in 1974.

The Commonwealth’s congressional delegation and Gov. Youngkin sent a letter to the GSA and FBI in February 2023 detailing the ways in which Springfield best meets the five selection criteria set forth by the GSA and FBI, which are: support for the FBI mission requirement; transportation access; site development flexibility; promoting sustainable siting and advancing equity; and cost.

Audrey Carpenter is the Northern Virginia Bureau Chief for All Virginia News. She can be contacted at: audreycarpenter@allvirginia.news