Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Kash Patel is relocating 500 agents from Washington D.C. to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville. FBI managers received notification last Friday at a meeting, shortly after Patel was sworn in as the next Director.
New: FBI Director Kash Patel is ordering 1,000 agents at headquarters into the field—and another 500 employees must move from D.C. to the FBI’s facility in Huntsville, AL, current and former FBI officials tell NBC News. There are around 7,300 employees working in the Hoover…
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) February 21, 2025
The move follows a targeted effort from Alabama’s federal lawmakers, in particular, U.S. Senators, Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville. The pair urged Director Patel to immediately fill 1,000 of the open slots at the FBI’s Redstone campus in a letter just days beforehand.
“Given the strategic investments at Redstone Arsenal and how its synergies align with your mission of restoring the FBI’s focus to the safety and security of the American people, we urge you to assign an additional 1,000 employees to FBI-Redstone as a first step to ultimately filling the approximately 4,000 open slots the campus can accommodate,” the Senators wrote. “This will send a message to our adversaries that the FBI’s leadership is back to prioritizing the pressing threats to our homeland. We look forward to working closely with you to Make America Safe Again.”
In his confirmation hearing, Patel confirmed to Senator Britt that he will be working to bring a significant portion of the FBI’s workforce to Huntsville.
“Senator, you have that commitment,” Patel told Britt. “This is a great example real quick of the FBI’s capabilities and infrastructure systems around the country that already exist to the tune of billions. And not only is it, I believe, a 38,000-acre sprawling campus, this Congress billeted 2,500 seats, but 4,000 seats still remain open. So let’s go to work. I’ll come to Alabama and let’s fill those seats.”
Redstone Arsenal currently has over 1,300 FBI personnel on base. According to Reuters, the bureau had over 9,000 employees in Washington as of June 2024.
Austen Shipley is the News Director for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @ShipleyAusten
