OPINION – Congress is weighing a call with essential Nationwide Safety implications for generations to come back: the place to find the subsequent FBI headquarters? The present headquarters, the Hoover Constructing, is long gone its sell-by date, and there may be normal settlement it must be changed.
The brand new headquarters, wherever it’s positioned, should cope with a basic risk. It’s going to inevitably be a high-priority goal for terrorists, spies, and cyber criminals. Which means the one most vital consideration have to be the protection of the women and men who work there; secondarily, the safety of extremely delicate investigative and nationwide safety knowledge held inside; lastly, the safety of adjacencies – each human and bodily. That form of safety requires greater than a robust constructing. It requires a secure location to fulfill present and evolving threats.
Sadly, the frontrunner for the brand new headquarters fails these essential concerns. We are able to do better–much better–than refurbishing the Ronald Reagan Constructing and Worldwide Commerce Heart. The vulnerabilities have been recognized for over 20 years.
The April 19, 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Workplace Constructing in Oklahoma Metropolis prompted new safety measures for federal workplace buildings. Impartial safety consultants warned that the Reagan Constructing’s sprawling 11-Acre advanced, mixed-use design, conference house, huge underground parking storage left it weak to terrorist assaults. The September 11, 2001 terrorist assaults confirmed that the FBI wanted a brand new headquarters advanced – one which glad Interagency Safety Committee (ISC) Degree V protocols – the very best safety requirements for nonmilitary federal amenities.
A retrofit of the 30-year-old Reagan Constructing will fail to fulfill the bodily and cybersecurity necessities of Degree V.
The Reagan Constructing is a quasi-public constructing within the coronary heart of downtown Washington, DC, designed as a middle for worldwide occasions and public use. Its structure is antithetical to Degree V as a result of options similar to a one-acre glass atrium roof, famed sky lights, and open entry to surrounding buildings and Metro.
The city density of the Reagan Constructing environment creates everlasting vulnerabilities that can by no means fulfill Degree V Safety. The Reagan Constructing is within the DC core, which exacerbates safety dangers to itself and adjoining federal and civilian exercise: the District’s Wilson Constructing, Division of Commerce, Willard Resort, Freedom Plaza, 14th Road artery and in nearer proximity to the White Home. No quantity of retrofitting will change these bodily adjacencies.
Close by high-rise buildings present clear vantage factors for hostile actors. The required standoff distances from blast threats can by no means be met. Nor can the Reagan Constructing adequately be shielded from line-of-sight surveillance, infrared detection, or digital sign assortment. And, the one acre of glass within the atrium skylight gives a simple drone risk.
A pedestrian tunnel below 14th Road, a well-liked meals courtroom, Metro entry, and public storage connectivity undermine perimeter management, as properly. Moreover, the Reagan Constructing can’t present the sq. footage for the redundant energy infrastructure mandated for a nationwide safety headquarters, together with a separate utility plant and a number of unbiased grid connections. Transferring FBI right here exhibits a grave disregard for the protection and safety of federal personnel, residents, and nationwide intelligence.
The Actual Tab: GSA’s FY 2026 prospectus estimates roughly $1.4 billion for design, building, and FBI fit-out, however omit the prices of: momentary housing throughout building, sustaining Degree V-compliant interim amenities, and the chance of future leased house if full consolidation proves unattainable throughout the mounted footprint of the Reagan Constructing. Outdated estimates and assumptions don’t mirror the complexity of Degree V safety or the fast evolution of cyber and surveillance threats.
The Time to Act is Now: Congress must take away the Reagan Constructing from consideration and demand on a purpose-built answer. The FBI wants a campus-style headquarters with satisfactory standoff distance, full perimeter management, redundant energy and communications, and infrastructure versatile to adapt to evolving threats. Over 23 years in the past, a bipartisan report was issued, utilizing the assaults on the Murrah Constructing and World Commerce Heart as background, in addition to GAO, DOJ/OIG, and Impartial Safety studies with related conclusions. However nothing has occurred.
Since our first article appeared in The Hill, Frank Keating, Oklahoma Governor at time of the Murrah Constructing Bombing, responded to us with, “The Murrah tragedy was a wake-up name. Now, thirty years later it doesn’t appear like any classes had been realized.” A former Ambassador shared, “The State Division’s publish Benghazi worldwide constructing necessities are very unfriendly to retrofitting buildings for occupation by State personnel whether or not or not a SCIF is concerned. The Bureau would be the goal just like the Marines in Beirut.”
If lawmakers need to make sure the FBI stays the world’s premier regulation enforcement and counterterrorism group, they need to demand a headquarters that’s purposefully constructed from a nationwide safety perspective, not a retrofit of a constructing by no means supposed to be a secured facility. Let’s, lastly, do that proper
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