Kash Patel, President Donald Trump‘s nominee to be the next FBI director, vowed on Thursday to keep a field office active in Memphis.

Patel’s assurance, if confirmed, came after Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, voiced concern over the move that the FBI made last October.

In August, then-Director Christopher Wray visited the Memphis and Knoxville field offices. During that visit, a press release from the FBI said Wray discussed consolidating the Memphis and Knoxville field offices as one in Nashville.

The move would centralize the FBI, but Wray said that there would still be “a strong presence” in Memphis. In place of the field office, the Memphis branch would become a resident agency.

Instead of having two field offices in the east and west sides of the state, one field office in Nashville and nine resident agencies were established.

Resident agencies are generally described as “smaller offices” by the FBI. Despite the change, Joe Carrico, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Tennessee division, told FOX13 in October that about 450 FBI employees would remain in Memphis and that only a few leadership positions moved to Nashville.

Patel’s confirmation hearing ended Thursday afternoon after hours of questioning from Senate Judiciary Committee members. Republican senators voiced general support of Patel, with Democrats grilling the nominee about past statements he made.

Lucas Finton covers crime, policing, jails, the courts and criminal justice policy for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by phone or email: (901)208-3922 and [email protected], and followed on X @LucasFinton.