By Andrew Goudsward and Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -FBI Director Kash Patel told a U.S. Senate panel on Thursday that he supports a White House proposal to cut the bureau’s budget, a day after telling lawmakers he had wanted $1 billion more than the administration had requested.
Patel’s Wednesday testimony to a House of Representatives panel had exposed a rare break with President Donald Trump’s administration, which has pushed to slash spending across the federal government. Disagreements between agencies and the White House over funding requests to Congress are rarely made public.
Patel told the Senate appropriations committee on Thursday that he 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 said. “As the head of the FBI, I was simply asking for more funds because I can do more with more money.”
Trump’s administration has called for a $545 million cut to the FBI as part of a plan to shrink the federal budget by $163 billion.
Patel told the Wednesday House hearing that he was working to explain to both the White House and Congress “why we need more than what has been proposed in that budget.”
The proposed cuts to the FBI attracted bipartisan concern from senators, who said they feared cuts would impact the bureau’s ability to counter violent crime and national security threats.
“I’m concerned that the scale of the proposed reduction could force the FBI to eliminate vacant positions and leave positions unfilled,” Republican U.S. Senator Jerry Moran, of Kansas, said.
The budget proposal, released last week, includes few details about what would be cut at the FBI, but cites diversity policies, “pet projects” of former Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration and what it calls duplicative intelligence activities.
The proposal repeats allegations that the FBI had been “weaponized” against Trump and his supporters. Trump and his allies, including Patel, have repeatedly made such claims over FBI probes of Russian election interference, the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and other issues.
Democratic senators on Thursday scolded Patel for failing to submit a detailed budget proposal for the FBI. Senator Patty Murray of Washington called Patel’s failure to offer a timeline for a blueprint “insufficient and deeply disturbing.”
Patel said he was working with the Justice Department and the White House budget office on the issue.
“We are now having a budget hearing without a budget request,” Murray said.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Scott Malone and Bill Berkrot)
