Judge Blocks Kash Patel’s Reagan Building Plan, Erases $555 Million Reprogramming
A federal judge has slammed the brakes on FBI Director Kash Patel’s plan to move the bureau’s headquarters into the existing Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C.
U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang sided with Maryland and Prince George’s County, which had fought to preserve plans for a brand-new FBI campus in Greenbelt. The jurisdictions had been positioned to benefit from the massive project before Patel and the General Services Administration changed course.
Patel’s plan called for keeping the FBI headquarters inside the District of Columbia. Administration officials argued that using the federally owned Reagan complex would save taxpayers billions of dollars compared with constructing a new campus. The building is only a few blocks from the current J. Edgar Hoover Building.
Chuang vacated the July 2025 selection of the Reagan Building. He also blocked renovations and relocation work there and erased the reprogramming of $555 million in funds. The judge declared those actions “not in accordance with law” and beyond the agencies’ statutory authority.
The ruling does not directly order the FBI to begin construction in Greenbelt. It does, however, wipe out Patel’s Reagan Building plan unless the administration wins an appeal or Congress changes the law. The decision effectively restores the path toward the Biden-era Greenbelt site, even though Congress has not fully funded the enormous construction project.
The FBI responded immediately. A bureau spokesperson accused the court of choosing to “impermissibly intervene for political reasons” and said the agency would continue searching for the best available option for law enforcement.
Patel and the GSA announced the Reagan Building selection in July 2025 after nearly two decades of bureaucratic disputes over replacing the deteriorating Hoover Building. Officials said repurposing an existing facility would avoid billions in new construction costs, along with more than $300 million in deferred maintenance at the current headquarters.
Maryland Democrats, however, had thousands of jobs and a major economic windfall tied to the Greenbelt project. Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown celebrated the ruling and said it cleared the way for the headquarters to return to Greenbelt.
“Congress made a promise,” Brown said, according to Reuters. “The Trump administration tried to break it.”
That promise could leave taxpayers responsible for a proposed headquarters Patel said would cost nearly $5 billion and remain unfinished until 2035.
Patel previously announced that the FBI would leave the unsafe Hoover Building while relocating approximately 1,500 Washington-area employees to field offices around the country. He also proposed turning the old headquarters into a “Deep State museum.” Later, Patel finalized the building’s permanent closure and planned to move most headquarters personnel into the Reagan complex.
For now, that plan is on hold.