FBI Director Kash Patel appears to be backtracking on comments he made earlier this week that the Trump administration’s 2026 budget request was insufficient for the agency, 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 told 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 comments he made at a House hearing just one day before, during which he told members that he wanted more for the agency than what the Trump administration asked for in the president’s fiscal 2026 budget request.
In the presidential budget request released last Friday, the administration notes a proposed cut of $545 million as part of an effort to “reform and streamline the FBI.” Trump administration officials say the request was aimed at “cutting FBI D.C. overhead and preserving existing law enforcement officers,” as well as tackling what it described as “weaponization” within the agency.
Under a funding bill passed in March, Congress agreed to fund the government at mostly fiscal 2024 levels, which allowed for more than $10.6 billion in funding for the FBI. Congress has also made additional funding available to the agency in previous stopgap legislation.
But during his hearing before House Appropriations members on Wednesday, Patel drew headlines when he said he actually proposed more than $11 billion for the agency for fiscal 2026, while being grilled by Democrats for a budget request from the administration that runs about half a billion dollars below current funding levels for the FBI.
The moment came as Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, pressed Patel about the proposed cut 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 said at one point. “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 said. “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 asked 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 would slash nondefense spending by more than $160 billion. The proposal also seeks about 8 percent in funding cuts for the Department of Justice (DOJ) compared to fiscal 2025 enacted levels.
During the hearing on Thursday, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), who heads the subcommittee that oversees DOJ funding, expressed concern about the proposed funding cut 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 said.
He also noted the cut 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 said he doesn’t think the budget proposed by the administration would force him “to remove active duty line agents.”
Patel also faced heat from Democrats for not providing 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.) said. “The FBI is our nation’s leading law enforcement agency.”
Pressed on when senators should expect the FBI’s spend plan, Patel said he didn’t “have a timeline on that.”
“And your answer is you just understand, you’re not going to follow the law?” Murray asked.
“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 said.
