FBI Director Kash Patel seems to be backtracking on feedback he made earlier this week that the Trump administration’s 2026 price range request was inadequate for the company, telling senators Thursday that the FBI would “make the mission work on whatever budget we’re given.”
“My view is that we will make and agree with this budget as it stands and make it work for the operational necessity of the FBI,” Patel advised members of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee Thursday.
“As the head of the FBI, I was simply asking for more funds because I can do more with more money,” he added, referring to feedback he made at a Home listening to simply at some point earlier than, throughout which he advised members that he needed extra for the company than what the Trump administration requested for within the president’s fiscal 2026 price range request.
Within the presidential price range request launched final Friday, the administration notes a proposed lower of $545 million as a part of an effort to “reform and streamline the FBI.” Trump administration officers say the request was geared toward “cutting FBI D.C. overhead and preserving existing law enforcement officers,” in addition to tackling what it described as “weaponization” throughout the company.
Underneath a funding invoice handed in March, Congress agreed to fund the federal government at principally fiscal 2024 ranges, which allowed for greater than $10.6 billion in funding for the FBI. Congress has additionally made extra funding obtainable to the company in earlier stopgap laws.
However throughout his listening to earlier than Home Appropriations members on Wednesday, Patel drew headlines when he mentioned he truly proposed greater than $11 billion for the company for fiscal 2026, whereas being grilled by Democrats for a price range request from the administration that runs about half a billion {dollars} under present funding ranges for the FBI.
The second got here as Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), high Democrat on the Home Appropriations Committee, pressed Patel concerning the proposed lower from the administration.
“With a half billion dollar cut — more than 5 percent below the hard freeze of the FBI operating budget, you believe that then this would not impact enforcement or national security related functions? Then what are the positions?” she mentioned at one level. “I’m going to ask the question again, what positions are you looking to cut? … This is your budget. You have to have some idea of what you want to fund or not fund, or where you think you can cut or not cut.”
“That’s the proposed budget, not by the FBI,” Patel mentioned. “The proposed budget that I put forward is to cover us for $11.1 billion, which would not have us cut any positions.”
DeLauro then requested Patel if the president’s proposal was “wrong,” to which the FBI director responded that President Trump’s request is “a proposal” and that he’s “working through the appropriations process to explain why we need more than what has been proposed.”
The president has sought steep cuts in his fiscal 2026 request, which might slash nondefense spending by greater than $160 billion. The proposal additionally seeks about 8 % in funding cuts for the Division of Justice (DOJ) in comparison with fiscal 2025 enacted ranges.
Through the listening to on Thursday, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), who heads the subcommittee that oversees DOJ funding, expressed concern concerning the proposed funding lower for the FBI.
“Director Patel, I’m concerned that the scale of the proposed reduction could force the FBI to eliminate vacant positions and leave positions unfilled as current special agents, intelligence analysts and as professional staff depart and retire,” he mentioned.
He additionally famous the lower comes after “two years where the FBI’s budget was essentially held flat, forcing it to absorb hundreds of millions of dollars in unavoidable inflationary increases.”
Patel mentioned he doesn’t assume the price range proposed by the administration would drive him “to remove active duty line agents.”
Patel additionally confronted warmth from Democrats for not offering a spend plan for the FBI for fiscal 2026.
“The spend plan is required by law. It was due to Congress over a week ago. We have not yet seen it. That is really absurd,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) mentioned. “The FBI is our nation’s leading law enforcement agency.”
Pressed on when senators ought to count on the FBI’s spend plan, Patel mentioned he didn’t “have a timeline on that.”
“And your answer is you just understand, you’re not going to follow the law?” Murray requested.
“My answer is that I am following the law, and I’m working with my interagency partners to do this and get you the budget that you are required to have,” he mentioned.
