The FBI Is Falling to Pieces – Literally

A stone, perhaps the biggest to detach from the building to date, is held by a net, which protects pedestrians walking down 9th Street from being struck by an FBI that is collapsing. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey has a piece of cement in his office from the Edgar Hoover Building, a stronghold in the heart of Washington that is becoming less impregnable every day. Never before was the literal so true: The FBI is falling to pieces.

It took 12 years to erect the Edgar Hoover Building, which cost $126 million in 1975. For more than a decade, FBI officials have warned that it is necessary, imperative even, to replace the building that has gone from being a symbol of strength to yet another chapter in the book known as Government Inaction — not the only example in Washington. Three years ago, the federal government started the search for a new location to accommodate 11,000 bureau workers, and today it has been whittled down to three places: Greenbelt, Landover and Springfield, all within three miles of Interstate 495, known as the Capital Beltway, and two miles from a metro station.

The funding allocation is a bigger problem still. Congress has no intention of approving an expenditure which further destabilizes its already precarious accounts. So far, the solution involves an exchange: the current building, considered by some to be the ugliest building in the world, for real estate land in the aforementioned places. Although the Edgar Hoover Building is valued at $5 billion, the FBI, which is dedicated to combating the threat of international terrorism and cybercrime in the 21st century — it has just published its latest list of the most wanted fugitives opposed to the Vietnam War — costs between $1.4 and $2 billion.

Having reviewed the numbers, it looks as if there will be a net on 9th Street for a long time to come.