FBI Director Kash Patel expressed concern Wednesday with the White House’s proposed budget cuts for the bureau, arguing that the FBI “can’t do the mission” if $545 million is slashed from its coffers.
“At this time we have not looked at who to cut,” Patel told Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) during a House Appropriations Committee hearing, when asked about which FBI positions would need to be axed to comply with funding changes proposed by the White House last week.
“We are focusing our energies on how not to have them cut, by coming in here and highlighting to you that we can’t do the mission on those 2011 budget levels,” the FBI director continued.
Patel noted that the bureau is working with the White House Office of Management and Budget and congressional appropriators to fix the rift and make the case that the FBI “ cannot cover down on the mission at the levels that we would have to go to” under President Trump’s budget proposal, should it be implemented.
The White House budget aims to “reform and streamline” the FBI by slashing nearly half a billion dollars in funds from the bureau’s 2025 budget for fiscal year 2026.
“The Budget reflects the President’s priority of reducing violent crime in American cities and protecting national security by getting FBI agents into the field by cutting FBI D.C. overhead and preserving existing law enforcement officers,” read the section on the FBI in the so-called “skinny” budget released by the White House.
The budget proposal “reflects a new focus on counterintelligence and counterterrorism, while reducing non-law enforcement missions that do not align with the President’s priorities,” it continued, citing diversity, equity and inclusion programs, “pet projects” of previous administrations and “duplicative intelligence activities” as examples of reductions Trump wants to see.
“The proposed budget that I put forward is to cover us for $11.1 billion, which would not have us cut any positions,” Patel said at the hearing.
The White House budget does not include a topline number for the FBI, but the proposed cuts would reportedly amount to a $1 billion gap between the figure Patel asserts the bureau needs and what Trump wants to give the federal law enforcement agency.
The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Trump’s budget proposal calls for $163 billion in cuts to non-defense discretionary spending – amounting to a 22.6% reduction from current levels.
