▶ 0:04:42Subcommittee will come to order. Without objection, the the chair is authorized to declare a recess at any afternoon uh and welcome to the first fiscal year 2026 budget hearing for the subcommittee on commerce, justice, science, and related agencies. I'll begin by recognizing myself for an opening statement.
▶ 0:05:10We want to welcome uh our witness uh the honorable Cash Patel, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to this subcommittee. Uh, Director Patel was sworn in as the FBI's director on 2025.
▶ 0:05:30At your swearing in, uh, you stated that there will be accountability within the FBI and outside the FBI, and we will do it through rigorous oversight. That's music to our ears.
▶ 0:05:48Americans gave us a clear mandate in November to restore confidence in the FBI and deweaponize the DOJ and they haven't minced words. We've heard from communities across the country who want to see a separation between politics and justice.
▶ 0:06:12After four long years, I'm confident that you have the ability and sheer determination to reinforce the FBI's mission of protecting the American public and upholding the Constitution. I'm looking forward to your leadership in tackling some of the most important and dangerous issues that our nation is facing.
▶ 0:06:40In fact, we are already starting to see progress since you were confirmed for this role earlier in this year. First and foremost, we finally have secure borders, making our communities safe again.
▶ 0:06:58Our borders, when unsecured, provide an express lane directly into our country for fentinel and other illicit drugs that target our children, our schools, our families, and our neighborhoods.
▶ 0:07:16From a crackdown on cartel operations and trafficking to enhanced immigration enforcement, the importance of a strong and secure border cannot be understated. I want to thank you and President Trump for putting our nation's borders front and center. However, your work will never cease.
▶ 0:07:39Without taking a day off, your FBI must diligently prevent terrorism from striking our shores. Nor can the bureau allow espionage to overtake our institutions and our people.
▶ 0:07:56The constant advancements in technology and artificial intelligence are a double-edged sword, providing new opportunities for economic development in our communities, but also creating new risks for our hospitals, our banks, our educational institutions, and even putting our children in harm's way when it comes to cyber crimes.
▶ 0:08:22This is an important job, one of the most important in our nation. Criminals move fast and change methods regularly to evade capture. The FBI must be smarter, faster, and anticipate the underworld's next move.
▶ 0:08:43That's why I'm looking forward to hearing today from you about your plans to make the bureau more effective and more efficient at fighting violent crime.
▶ 0:08:57This includes potentially moving agents away from Washington and into FBI field offices to better combat rampid However, just last Friday, the president sent to Congress a preliminary budget that reflects a $545 million cut to the FBI. The information provided was limited in detail.
▶ 0:09:27So, I look forward to hearing from you about this cut and if enacted, what impact this level of funding would have on the FBI. I know with approximately $ 36 trillion in debt, our government must think and act differently. That's why I pledge to work with you directly as you lead the nation's top crime fighting uh agency.
▶ 0:09:58You have a very important job to do, but I trust that you are up for the task. I think you are. Let me now recognize the ranking member of the subcommittee, Miss Megan, for any remarks she might wish to make. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I appreciate this opportunity for our subcommittee to examine the work and the budget of one of the subcommittee's largest agencies, the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
▶ 0:10:27Director Patel, thank you for being here today and for your testimony. As you know, the work of the FBI is of utmost importance to the safety and security of our local communities and the nation as a whole. The FBI's dedicated agents, analysts, and other professional staff perform invaluable work at the FBI's headquarters, field offices, resident agencies, oversee offices, and other facilities.
▶ 0:10:57They protect the American people not just from violent crime in their local communities, but from cyber attacks and other threats coming from adversaries outside of the United States. That's why I was very disappointed to see that the fiscal year 2026 budget framework released Friday by the Trump administration appears to propose cutting the FBI's operating budget by more than half a billion dollars.
▶ 0:11:25The FBI has in the recent past come under harsh and I believe highly unfair criticism by far too many politicians and political campaign operatives. Earlier this year, the Trump administration demanded that the FBI provide the Justice Department with a list of all current and former FBI employees who at any time worked on January 6 related investigations.
▶ 0:11:53The list was demanded to quote determine whether any additional personnel actions are unnecessary unquote. These FBI employees are career public servants who were simply doing their jobs.
▶ 0:12:08The administration has also fired or forced out dozens of experienced career federal prosecutors as well as numerous senior career FBI leaders including James Deni, the highly respected head of the FBI's New York field office. It also isn't helpful to the FBI or to federal law enforcement more generally that other recent actions of the Trump administration have shown strong disrespect for the law.
▶ 0:12:38For example, the administration, including Elon Musk and OM Director Russot, have made up the existence of an inherent presidential power to impound federal funds, which the Government Accountability Office, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, and the Supreme Court of the United States have all rejected.
▶ 0:13:01According to calculations by the appropriations committee minority, the Trump administration is currently freezing at least $430 billion in federal funding that Congress had promised for communities all across America. This includes 365 DOJ grants recently terminated by the Trump administration, covering activities across 34 states and two US territories.
▶ 0:13:30These grants were specifically for violence prevention and intervention efforts, services for victims of crime, responses to hate crimes, individuals struggling with substance use disorders, and much more. In addition, the administration has initiated a process to restore the gun possession rights of convicted felons and domestic abusers.
▶ 0:13:54It has attempted to intimidate law firms through executive orders and has gutted the public integrity section of the Justice Department, which has long worked to protect the American people against corruption. And just this past Sunday, when asked in an interview whether US citizens and non-citizens living in our country deserve due process rights as laid out in the fifth amendment of the Constitution, the president answered, quote, I don't know.
▶ 0:14:23I'm not a lawyer," unquote. This is unacceptable. The president and his administration must always lead by example by obeying and enforcing the US Constitution and federal laws. With an annual operating budget of more than 10 billion, it's entirely appropriate that this subcommittee, which provides the FBI with its funding every year, exercises strong oversight over the bureau, its leadership, and its work.
▶ 0:14:53Director Patel, I look forward to your testimony today and to your answers to our questions. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back. I recognize the chairman of the full committee, Mr. Cole, for any remarks he cares to make. Thank you very much uh Mr. Chairman. And before I get into my uh my prepared statement, I just want to tell my friend, the director, how happy I am you're in your present post.
▶ 0:15:18Uh we a lot of us had a great privilege of knowing you from your time in service and the staff on the house and particularly with Deon Nunes and I don't think the president could have made a better appointment and I think you're off to a great start and I look forward to working with you. I know you'll find and and know chairman Rogers but you'll find the members of this committee very anxious to work with you to make the American people safer and more secure. So just thank you for being there. Thank you for the sacrifice you went through.
▶ 0:15:46I know you didn't have the easiest of confirmation processes, but I think that was probably to be expected. But thanks for going through it and thanks again for uh uh taking this responsibility because I know you're going to discharge it with great distinction. Um Mr. Chairman, again, thank you, Ranking Men. Well, one of those days. Uh thank you very much and it's good to be with both of you here today. Uh I'd like to welcome you, Mr. FBI director.
▶ 0:16:17It's good to see you again and thank you for appearing before us today. I want to remind everyone that when the dean of the house and the chair of this subcommittee entered Congress back in 1981, discretionary spending stood at 45% uh of the federal budget and mandatory spending was 55%.
▶ 0:16:35Fast forward today, we now have discretionary spending reduced to 28% and mandatory spending having swelled to And as a percentage of the GDP, when the dean got here, we were appropriating 9.8% of the GDP. We appropriate 6.4% of the GDP today. I simply point that out to say if we have a spending problem, it's not the appropriations committee uh where the problem is.
▶ 0:17:03We've actually reduced the the amount of the the resources of the American people. we've taken u to discharge our responsibilities and the dean's been a big big part of that wouldn't have happened without him. Um the president has delivered obviously a starting point uh for this process of appropriations with his recent FY26 blueprint.
▶ 0:17:26Congress will now analyze the submission and use hearings to evaluate priorities moving forward uh as we're doing here today. Uh, I would remind everyone and certainly not the responsibility of the director of the FBI, the quicker we can get a full budget, the better off we'll be. We'll be able to make smarter decisions and uh, frankly work with you more clearly. I know you share that frustration and I always say it's nobody's fault. Every new administration takes time to get people approved.
▶ 0:17:55take time to get people, but we are at crunch time if we're going to get these bills out of here in a timely enough process for the full Congress to consider them and for us to have an opportunity to negotiate a final agreement with our colleagues across the rotunda in the United States Senate. But to the the point of the hearing today, the mission of the Federal Bureau of Investigations is a significant one. Protect the American people and uphold the Constitution.
▶ 0:18:22Your work to secure our communities along with preserving the integrity and trust of our top law enforcement agencies is impactful each and every day. Importantly, the FBI has been instrumental in Operation Notforgotten that focuses on investigations, services, and intelligence for Indian country.
▶ 0:18:41According to the Department of Justice, at the beginning of fiscal year 2025, FBI's Indian Country Program had approximately 4,300 open investigations, including 900 death investigations, a thousand child abuse investigations, and more than 500 domestic violence and adult sexual abuse investigation.
▶ 0:19:02Director Patel, I want to thank you and the FBI for reinstating and bolstering this critically important initiative, not only for Oklahoma, but also for the entire country. Uh, as you may know, more than four and five Native American, Alaskan Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime. The murder rate is 10 times higher than the national average for women living on reservations. Initiatives like these are what make the FBI stand apart.
▶ 0:19:30very important when looking at these to understand the great majority of the perpetrators are not Native Americans. Uh they're non-native Americans and they're on reservations and in Indian country for a very simple reason. I always like to say pre, you know, hunters know where to hunt, fishermen know where to fish, predators know where to prey. They go to places that are quite often remote where enforcement uh is difficult and where jurisdiction is sometime complex and tangled.
▶ 0:19:56Uh so again your focus on this naughty problem and persisting problem is deeply appreciated certainly by me and I think members on both sides of the aisle. Uh our nation faces also countless threats from terrorism and drug traffickers to cyber crimes and child exploitation. Violent criminals work to expose our weaknesses on a daily basis. The work of the FBI is unmatched and thus Congress must effectively and efficiently appropriate funding to match these overwhelming tasks.
▶ 0:20:26Director Patel, I look forward again to this afternoon's conversation on these matters as well as a thorough discussion of the budget. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With that, I yield back. And I recognize the ranking member of the full committee, Miss Deloro, for any remarks she misses to make. Thank you so much, Mr. chairman and ranking member uh for holding this important budget hearing. Uh I also want to say a thank you to our witness uh director Cash Patel for appearing before the subcommittee uh today.
▶ 0:20:56And as my colleague Tom Cole said, welcome back to the House of Representatives. So uh a well functioning, wellunded, well-led Federal Bureau of Investigation is critical to the safety and the security of the American people. The men and women of the FBI are dedicated public servants who work diligently and often in dangerous settings to keep criminals off of our streets.
▶ 0:21:19But unfortunately, the Bureau civil servants have been the focus of demeaning and destructive attacks from this administration and its allies in the media which endanger and undermine the administration of justice in this country. The American people expected President Trump to address the high cost of living. But the president is not laser focused on the cost of living crisis. He is actually making it worse.
▶ 0:21:45Instead, he put Elon Musk and billionaires in charge of our government and they are attacking civil servants who are not loyal to him but to the Constitution and to the rule of law. This administration is deliberately undermining agencies that protect the American people. The president is more focused on attacking political opponents than attacking high prices for everyday essentials.
▶ 0:22:11And the American people are paying the cost while the president embarks on an agenda of revenge, retaliation, and retribution. And he is attempting to wield the FBI to those ends. Undo political pressure from the White House to investigate political opponents or to quash investigations of political allies threaten the bureau's credibility and the very foundations of the rule of law.
▶ 0:22:39The FBI director must shield the bureau and the rule of law from political pressure, not act as an instrument for implementing the president's political hit list. President Trump's immediate removal of senior officials at the FBI upon his taking office strikes me as an especially naked attempt to purge the bureau's ranks of anyone who does not profess loyalty to the president.
▶ 0:23:04This happened the day after you told members of the United States Senate, and I quote, "There will be no politicization at the FBI. There will be no retributive retributive actions taken by any FBI should I be confirmed as FBI director. End quote.
▶ 0:23:22The administration's retaliation against those who helped bring violent January 6 insurrections to justice and the ensuing dismissal of the head of the FBI's New York field office under your watch puts that pledge in doubt. Quite frankly, the bureau's leadership appears at best somewhere between acquiescent to the president's uh retributive urges and in absentia.
▶ 0:23:45By instilling a culture of fear and retaliation, you're undermining the bureau's employees and undermining the bureau's ability to stave off terrorist attacks and keep violent criminals off of our streets. The FBI plays a critical role in intelligence gathering and analysis. The FBI does not bring just criminals to justice. It foils terror plots.
▶ 0:24:09With a weakened and discouraged bureau workforce, Americans are less safe because of this administration. Even though we received President Trump's concepts of a budget plan on Friday, we are now into May without a real budget from the White House.
▶ 0:24:25I'm eager to learn about how the FBI would continue to fulfill its mission with a proposed $545 million cut to salaries and expenses, especially with the suggestion that the bureau should reduce or eliminate quote duplicative intelligence activities that are already effectively housed in other agencies end quote.
▶ 0:24:48If the bureau plans to cut intelligence analysts, at the same time other intelligence agency are enacting broad cuts to their workforces, the administration will be making our government and the American people more susceptible to violent criminals and to terrorist attacks. The FBI exists to protect Americans from criminals. The American people deserve assurance that everyone will be treated fairly and equally under the law.
▶ 0:25:17They are not seeing that from the Trump administration's FBI under your leadership, and we must receive clear and convincing answers as to why that is. I look forward to your testimony, and I yield back. Mr. Director, it's a pleasure to welcome you to the Congress. You're no stranger here having a part of your resume on the Hill.
▶ 0:25:45So, welcome back to your home base. We look forward to hearing from you uh and uh responsive to questions after your statement. So, Mr. Director, the floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Chairman Rogers, Chairman Cole, Ranking Member Men, Ranking Member Delorean, members of the committee. It is extreme honor and a privilege to be sitting here today as the ninth director of the FBI.
▶ 0:26:13Uh, President Trump has set some priorities out and a new focus for federal law enforcement. The FBI has heard those um directions and we are determined to deliver on our crime fighting and national security mission with renewed vigor. I'd like to highlight just a few things um the FBI has undertaken in the few short months that I've been at the helm. We have apprehended three of the FBI's most top 10 wanted fugitives in the world. Three in less than three months.
▶ 0:26:40We've joined our partners at DHS and conducted targeted operations to round up fugitives around the country. For instance, in Massachusetts alone, we have preded 370 violent fugitives. We seized along with our partners at DHS and the Department of Defense, in one operation down off the coast of Florida, 44,000 pounds of elicit narcotics. That's half a billion dollars of pure narcotics that would have hit the streets are now off the streets permanently.
▶ 0:27:10And as part of Operation Allied Corridor, we've targeted approximately 3,000 legal aliens with ties to criminal organizations who are eligible for removal. Children today, as we talked about with the Attorney General and Operation Restore Justice, prioritizing crimes against children is a priority of mine and will continue to be of the FBI.
▶ 0:27:33Just this morning, we announced that we executed over 450 search warrants and have rounded up in the last month alone over 400 individuals who choose to enact acts of violence against our children. 205 in the last week alone to include individuals in positions of trust such as teachers and law enforcement officers. They are committing some of the most heinous crimes against the most innocent of our society. And we will not tolerate it. It will remain a priority for us.
▶ 0:28:02As we double down on criminal threats, we're never going to stop pursuing the mission of defending the homeland. Foreign spies are trying to steal our technology, are trying to steal our agricultural products and seeds. Cyber actors are looking to infiltrate our networks on a daily basis from all parts of the world. And foreign and domestic terrorists continue their plotting both here and overseas.
▶ 0:28:28It's hard not to overstate the operational tempo that the FBI must act and will continue to act since I've been at the helm of these last three months. The mission is a no-fale mission because if we fail then American lives will be endangered or lost. Every operation we run comes with one end state in mind to disrupt or stop criminal activity or threats to the homeland. It's not I that do the work of the FBI.
▶ 0:28:55It's the agents, the intel analysts, the SOS, and the support staff throughout our field offices that take it to the streets every single day. It's our linguist who translate and transcribe from dialects that most people on Earth don't even know about um in offices on a 247 basis so that our search warrants can be signed out, so that our arrest warrants can be signed and approved by judges.
▶ 0:29:16It's the everyday women of the FBI across the country, many of whom I gotten to meet in my short time and prior to that in my time as a terrorism prosecutor, worked handin glove with them, both here in America and overseas. Our our joint terrorism task force is a heartbeat of what defends this country from domestic and international threats of terrorism. Every one of our 55 field offices has a joint terrorism task force situated in almost every single state in this country, covering every single state in this country.
▶ 0:29:44We've stopped many plots including um against targeting energy facilities in Baltimore and of course the tragic um New Orleans uh day plot terrorist attack. One of our initiatives of course is to continue to fight against elicit fentinyl trafficking and narcotics trafficking into the country. Every seven minutes in this country as of last year an individual an American citizen is killed from a drug overdose.
▶ 0:30:12To that end, we have enacted uh along with our partners across the inter agency and the southwest border intelligence center the counter cartel coordination center is what we call it the FBI the C4. We have um flexed assets over to that area and are using it as a regional hub to countermand the narcotics coming across the southern border.
▶ 0:30:34It's important efforts like these that not just stop the narcotics traffickers and narot terrorists from entering our country but from pouring drugs in. We must work with the inner agency to accomplish this goal. We will work with the inner agency to accomplish this goal. It is not an FBI mission alone. We will partner with anyone and everyone willing to achieve this mission set. In one of my first actions as director, I gave my agents and intel analysts an opportunity to go out and serve in the field.
▶ 0:31:05And many of those individuals took that opportunity and have requested to be redeployed into the field into every one of your states um across this country. We are moving more than a thousand positions outside of the Washington DC area. And that's not the Washington field office or Hoover alone. That's what we call the NCR, the National Capital Region. 11,000ish FI employees of the 37,000 that are currently employed work inside the NCR.
▶ 0:31:35We need some of those field operatives out in the field. We need some of those intelligence analysts out in the field. We need their expertise in your states, in your counties, in your towns because the threat to this country in 2025 is everywhere. And we cannot quarterback that mission from Washington DC alone. We will remain here in Washington with the cadre we need to support the field offices. Absolutely. But we need to embolden our efforts in field.
▶ 0:32:05We are also under my leadership looking to cut waste, fraud, and abuse. We have found duplicative line item contracts already within the FBI and we don't want to waste taxpayer dollars at the bureau. We don't want to pay twice for something when we have been only needed to pay once. Modernizing and prioritizing the FBI is a critical component of what we need to do. Our capabilities and our infrastructure at the FBI are outdated.
▶ 0:32:35Um they have been they have been the opposite of streamlined. An agent in our field office in El Paso does not have the same toolkit as an agent in our field offices covering the Dakotas as our agent in New York City. That's unacceptable to me. We will fix that. But building this new infrastructure is going to take not just a public effort. It's going to take a public private partnership engagement which we have um already executed on.
▶ 0:33:01Members of this committee are important critical partners to the fight against crime in this country and to defending our homeland. And you know better than anyone that our own fail mission continues and can't continue without your investment and your support. I rely on your expertise. I rely on our conversations that I have with you here and offline to tell me where the problem sets are in this country because I don't know where they all are. And then we can deploy assets to attack the growing problem sets. Our enemies are getting more and more creative by the day.
▶ 0:33:31And we need to keep up not just with the intelligence but with you who represent the men and women in the in the United States across this country. you have the ground level knowledge that we need to help fight this message. Without the funds to get ahead of our adversaries, I agree, we risk making trade-offs that will jeopardize the safety of Americans. So, it's my commitment to you to work with you during this appropriations process to address budgetary needs, shortfalls, and also think innovatively to make sure we fund the FBI for a future. Thank you very much.
▶ 0:34:02Thank you, Mr. Director. We will proceed under the uh fivem rule and to begin with I recognize myself. Let me say this u congratulations on the fentinel raid in the last few hours. I think one of the largest if not the largest seizure of fentinel drugs.
▶ 0:34:33What can you say about that operation we seize about Mr. Mr. Chairman, I believe what you're referring to is a 6 kilogram seizure of fentinol um in Kentucky. Uh that constitutes an amount of fentinol that can kill half a million Americans. And that's just one of the seizures that we have conducted throughout this country because the fentinol crisis in the United States of America has not been countermanded.
▶ 0:35:03Uh this time last year alone, 620 kgs of fentinol had been seized. In these last three months, 840 kgs of fentinol have been seized across the country by the FBI alone. Fentinol and carfentinol, a drug that is 100 times more potent than fentinyl itself, is exploding across the scene because we are letting our enemies um and adversaries in mainland China produce chemicals and ship them here freely. and we need to attack that head on.
▶ 0:35:33And it's operations like that, Mr. Chairman, that will allow us to save the lives of our Well, we certainly wish you well in that in that regard. Um, this is your first time testifying before this subcommittee and you've briefly shared a few priorities in your statement.
▶ 0:35:55Um, let me allow you more time regarding your initial priorities, particularly any strategic goals or areas where additional congressional involvement might be necessary. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I um and I hope to work with all members of the committee to achieve uh the following. I will ask you for money that I need and that the bureau needs and I won't ask you for a dime more.
▶ 0:36:25In order to achieve the mission of the FBI, if we continue on the current trajectory outlined, we will have to not only eliminate 1100 vacancies currently at the FBI, I will have to fire 1300 more. In order to fight crime at a level that is consistent with 2025, the budgetary number I've asked for in my paperwork is, I think, reasonable.
▶ 0:36:49And also just to put it in perspective, it's multiples of billions of dollars less than what the TSA has to operate annually. I believe we can continue on the plan to safeguard our communities and redeploy assets to the FBI. For example, in Kentucky alone, if we are allowed to continue on this trajectory, we will plus up with 30 approximately 30 agents and intel analyst um with this redeployment effort that is already underway.
▶ 0:37:15that will allow more agents to be in the field and conduct more seizures of fentinol to prevent more acts of violent crime and stop more murders and stop more gangbangers. Putting I firmly believe putting folks in the field is one of the biggest ways we can secure the safety of our communities. Um places like Louisville have dedicated over 2,000 hours alone to assisting DHS um conducting over 100 arrests.
▶ 0:37:41And so it's operations like that that I can go on that we can do if we have the manpower to do it. And I believe we will get there. And your plan to move positions from Washington DC to offices totally in the country. How many changes will you see? Locations. Every single state gets a plus up. Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:38:10We have 55 field offices, a little over 300 resident agencies covering down in some large swats of geography like the Dakotas and Montana and Idaho region which don't themselves have a what we call a special agent in charge. But covering down on this plus up allows us not to just send agents and intel analysts to our field offices, but our resident agencies as well, which cover down on this geography to include tribal lands.
▶ 0:38:36I just met with the um the the leaders of every tribal community in the country here in Washington DC two days ago and I told them the crimes that are happening to individuals like Emily Pike, a 14-year-old who was dismembered um on a on a reservation in Arizona and her mother asked me to find her arms because they only found a piece of her body. A crime like that occurs everywhere in this country tragically and they will not receive any less attention from this FBI because it occurred on tribal lands.
▶ 0:39:06But allowing a plus up will also allow us to engage the tribal communities and the leaders that I ask for their help in letting us on and work with them because they face the same violent crime everyday Americans do. How will you judge the impact that this uh effort will make? I think we've already seen it, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 0:39:26Um, in just the sheer amount of fentinol alone, when you look at this time last year versus this time this year, when you look at the number of arrest of violent criminals this time last year versus this year, and that's just with a short-term surge to the field that we've done in these last couple of months, the long-term uh push to the field will take uh much longer. Well, thank you for willing to serve and we wish you well and will be supportive of your efforts.
▶ 0:39:55We want to see the FBI back to its former glory. Uh, and we think you're the man that can make that happen. So, our best wishes to you. Thank you, sir. Miss uh, Director Patel, since 2022, the executive branch has been legally required to operate and maintain a publicly available system to which aortionments are posted.
▶ 0:40:23Uh as you know aortionments are legally required by the anti-deficiency act. They are formal federal budgetary accounting documents that are legally binding on federal agency and OM uses them to tell agencies how and when they can spend legally appropriated funds. Beginning in March, this OM stopped making these documents publicly accessible.
▶ 0:40:49You stated in your confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee that you want to work to get public trust in the FBI back. It would seem to me that transparency and public reporting about what where and how the bureau is spending money uh would help in earning back public trust. Um as the leader of our nation's principal federal law enforcement agency, will you commit to making the FBI's accountspecific aortionments publicly available? Absolutely.
▶ 0:41:19So long as I have the appropriate request. Um if you the law requires that all the information uh be posted publicly. Is are you committing to do that? Yeah. If that's what the law requires. Yes. I'm not the appropriations expert, but if that's what the law requires, that's what we'll do. Do you have a timeline of when that would be possible? And why since March has it been taken down?
▶ 0:41:50No, ma'am, but I will get you one. Okay. So, thank you for committing to publicly post uh what is required by law the portionment for uh the FBI. Um I wanted to ask about one of the nom attorney US attorney nominee Ed Martin. Uh, as you know, the FBI conducts background checks on nominees for senior positions in the federal government.
▶ 0:42:18Ed Martin has been nominated by the president to serve as US attorney for the District of Columbia, one of the top prosecutor positions in the country and he currently holds that position in an interim row. If it has come to light that Mr. Martin has praised a Nazi sympathizer named Timothy Hail Kusenelli who was also pardoned by President Trump after being convicted as a January 6th rier. Mr.
▶ 0:42:44Martin called Hail Kusenelli quote an extraordinary man and extraordinary leader. He's also falsely claimed that he did not previously know that he was a Nazi sympathizer. Uh do you think that this is the kind of thing that the FBI should be careful to investigate as part of its background checks? on nominees such as Mr. Martin. Thank you, ma'am. I'm not familiar with Mr. Martin's specific BI investigation, but I can tell you how the BIS are done for everybody at the FBI.
▶ 0:43:14We have careers running the entire inspection division and HRD component. That has not changed since I've been in the seat. And every BI has been held to the same standard by them. And either they pass along the information from their investigations that they cultivate or they don't. We don't do not tell them what to pass on and what not to investigate. Do you know if this information and past association was part of the record? I'm not familiar with his personal background.
▶ 0:43:38Do you think that these types of controversial comments and interviews uh association with uh Nazi sympathizers and anti-semitic comments would be appropriate for inclusion in a given FBI background check? Ma'am, since his nomination is pending, it's not for me to comment on it. I I don't have the BI in front of me. But in general, do you think that comments and associations like these should be part of an FBI background investigation report?
▶ 0:44:08That's up to the field agents, ma'am. I can't rewrite that for them. They have a way of doing these investigations that I have not inhibited or changed or altered since I got in the seat. Um will you look into it and make sure that uh what is should be included uh controversial and very troublesome uh anti-semitic comments and associ associations like that should be uh part of a background check. I will. Thank you.
▶ 0:44:33Um lastly uh as you know earlier this year the justice department demanded a list of all current and former FBI employees who at any time worked on January 6th investigations. According to the email from the then acting FBI director, the Justice Department will review those employees to quote determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.
▶ 0:44:57Uh, Director Patel, do you anticipate firing any additional FBI employees simply because they worked on January 6 related investigations? Thank you for the question. Um, that uh email or memo was sent out prior to my arrival at the FBI. We have not um addressed that specific email since I've arrived because the matters in litigation in federal court.
▶ 0:45:24Do you anticipate firing any additional employees that may have worked in relation to the January 6th investigations? The only way you get fired from the FBI while I'm the director is if you violate the ethical guidelines or break the law. Okay. Uh thank you. I yield back. Judge Carter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome, Mr. Patel. Glad to have you here, and I think you're going to do a great job in this new FBI.
▶ 0:45:56Given the Texas proximity to the southern border, what resources is the FBI dedicating to the counter cartel operations, fentel trafficking and human struggling uh smuggling network operating in coordination with foreign Thank you, Mr. uh Mr. C. Thank you, Congressman. Excuse me.
▶ 0:46:20Um the one of the things I mentioned during uh my confirmation hearing is the one thing I believe to be the underpinning of all violent crime or at least the overwhelming majority of it um in America whether it's murders, gang violence and it's or sex slave trafficking is narcotics and narcotics unfortunately are pouring in not just on a border state but every single state has become a border state.
▶ 0:46:46So to countermand that, we stood up the FBI just next door in Arizona, the southwest border intelligence center. And the FBI's mandate there at the counter coordination fusion center is to we have already sent uh dozens of agents and analysts out there to counterman the entire narcotics flow and interdiction process at the border.
▶ 0:47:06Specifically when it comes to the state of Texas, sir, um we will, if the appropriations process allows, augment the number of agents and analysts in the field and SOS support staff by over 85. That will cover down on every major city in Texas and allow us to cover down on the RAS in the outlying regions. So those places include Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, but also the the half a dozen plus RAS we have inside the state.
▶ 0:47:34Uh just in a hearing that I was in this morning with the United States Army, uh an issue came up about the uh cartels taking down one of our drones with one of their drones.
▶ 0:47:50I'm very familiar with the with the general policy on the border that if they're shooting at you, uh you can't shoot back unless they but it becomes obvious that that you're going to come into serious harm. The military can't shoot back, nor can for that matter the patrol. What do you think about these drones? I mean, they're unmanned.
▶ 0:48:19They're coming across and and shooting down drones we're using for observation and other things. Uh I think the policy ought to be if they shoot down our drone, we shoot down theirs. What do you think about it?
▶ 0:48:33Well, I I don't think I have the authority to reshape that policy, but um if it were um in my capacity as FBI director, I know we were working with the Secretary of Homeland Security who has a larger portfolio in the UAS space than we do to cover down on that threat. But just in my time from in government the first turn, uh the drone capabilities by our adversaries have significantly expanded. Their technology is wildly impressive and um they don't care if they lose one.
▶ 0:49:02Unlike us, we care when we lose a single one as we should. In order to countermand that, you are going to have to, in my opinion, alter the domestic intelligence collection priorities on the NIPF um to prioritize who we collect against and what and the what is the drone technology that we are not sufficiently covering down on right now. Thank you. That's a great answer.
▶ 0:49:22Critical infrastructure, especially in the Texas energy section, is increasingly under However, how is the FBI coordinating with private industry and lo uh local law enforcement to detect and neutralize cyber threats before they impact the grid or supply chain. That's one of the pillars of what we are trying to do at the bureau. We can't do it from Washington DC.
▶ 0:49:51We do it by engaging our state and local law enforcement partners such as in Texas because they are the ground level experts on who, the what, the when, the where, and the why. What we can do is bring in our AIdriven capabilities to go in and synthesize the mountains of information that are coming in because there is no human or set of humans that can go through the amount of intelligence and information that we receive. It's a problem that we have and the public has acknowledged.
▶ 0:50:18The challenge and the rub is where do we allow computers to come in and humans to stop. And we're working through that at the bureau right now to say we should be able to use certain elements of AI to triage that capability, discard the unuseful information and highlight to leadership what the useful information is to Congress and also to our agents and a USA in the field so they can bring the appropriate cases. But we can only do that if we embed ourselves with state and local law enforcement and that's been a big priority of mine. Thank you. That's good. I appreciate the answer. Mr.
▶ 0:50:48Laurel, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Uh, Director Patel, you you have previously stated that your number one priority for the FBI is to end violent crime in the United States. Uh, the budget request slashes the FBI budget by more than half a billion dollars, below the current level. It quite literally would defund law enforcement, including, it would appear, cutting a number of FBI intelligence analysts who work on critical national security issues.
▶ 0:51:18How is it possible to cut more than half a billion dollars or more than 5% below a hard freeze in the FBI's operating budget without impacting the law enforcement and national security related functions of the FBI? Please specify exactly which positions would be Ma'am, at this time, um, we have not looked at who to cut.
▶ 0:51:43We 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. And so what we're focusing on is right now is working with our partners in OM, the appropriators, to say that we cannot cover down on the mission at the levels that we would have to go to, which would be the 2011 levels should all the budget cuts you just outlined be implemented.
▶ 0:52:10So, but are are you talking about coming up here with a budget request that restores the uh the the funding that has been been cut that that it's a um uh defunding law enforcement. You're talking about half billion dollars below the current level.
▶ 0:52:31How would you restructure the budget to get to what you need in order to be able uh to uh make sure that we are not defunding law enforcement and that we are not cutting the analysts that you need in order to be able to do your job and to be dealing with national security issues. I don't I don't understand. U you've got a budget request half a billion dollars less and you're you're cutting people. You don't know who you're going to cut. You don't want Tell us which it is.
▶ 0:53:01Are you going to restore that half billion? You're going to request restoring that half billion dollars? Well, as I said, I'm not the budget expert, but we the budget request that we put in the FBI was 11.2 billion, I believe. And we are working through the appropriations process and the OM process and the skinny budget that we receive to work with y'all to help us get to a number. And I believe if we got back the number you stated, we would not have to cut more FBI.
▶ 0:53:29So with with a half billion dollar cut more than 5% below the hard freeze of the FBI's operating budget, you believe that then this would not impact enforcement or national security related functions. Then what are the positions? I'm going to ask the question again. What positions are you looking to cut? What is the cut for this half billion dollars?
▶ 0:53:54Now, apparently that half billion dollars you you you're not in the budget department, but this is your budget. 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 and provide that information uh to uh to to to OM.
▶ 0:54:15I'm I'm unclear and I it seems to me that you are as to what should be the budget of of of this agency and if it's you know a half billion dollars lower what are the positions that you believe will have to be cut in order to reach the mandate uh that you bringing forward to us in terms of your budget? Well, that's exactly what I'm saying. That's the proposed budget, not by the FBI.
▶ 0:54:40The proposed budget that I put forward is to cover us for 11.1 billion, which would not have us cut any positions. The proposed budget So the skinny budget is is we we don't we don't have the skinny budget is wrong. The skinny budget is a proposal and I'm working through the appropriations process to explain why we need more than what has been proposed. So what what what do you need?
▶ 0:55:09You need 11.2 billion dollars approximately. Okay. Now, is that going to be uh delineated? I don't know what that means in terms of cuts that would be coming up uh to to reach that goal. So, there would be no additional positions uh uh uh deleted from the FBI if you get that amount of money. That's correct. And that's what we anticipate is coming in a budget that we anticipate at some point.
▶ 0:55:33We don't know when we're going to get it even though we will be in markups by the time this this this u effort is underway. But according according to what we have received from the FBI, there are 94 positions that are currently slated for transfer from Washington DC to field offices um that are currently vacant.
▶ 0:56:04Is that correct? Yes ma'am. Okay. Uh uh this is um what what what is there any explanation of why these positions are moving to field offices? One of the things we can't seem to get answers to and this is not you is programs are being deleted, programs that are being frozen, dollars are being frozen, programs that are being cut.
▶ 0:56:31There is we don't have any sense on this committee which is the appropriations committee and making a determination of what we should or shouldn't do is any evaluation from any agency so far and I asked this of you what is the criteria what are the programs that are going to be potentially left behind what is the evaluation process here that says why these programs are no longer are functional
▶ 0:57:01or not working. What is the story? Can we get from you when we're going to get a you know some sort of an idea of what is a budget that you you can deal with is what will be what what what may be cut, what may not be cut, uh and why.
▶ 0:57:22What would it what's the criteria by which that these programs uh would be uh the evaluation is to to to to transfer them out or why are these people going to field offices? Can we get that from you? Yeah, I can give it to you right now ma'am. Short answers to why these folks are going to the field is because we are moving agents, intel analysts, and SOS's across the country into every state to get a handle level grasp on violent crime in every single community.
▶ 0:57:52We're moving those folks out there. Okay. But I I just would wrap up and thank you, Mr. Chairman. We need to you need to provide for us spec be specify exactly which so-called quote overhead positions are being cut and since other federal agencies are also proposing position cuts how won't this cut inevitably reduce the FBI's intelligence analytic capabilities. We need to have that information before we can determine what the budget is. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Yield back, Mr.
▶ 0:58:22Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Director Patel, for being here. Director Patel, when President Trump nominated you to serve, he aptly called you an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution, who will bring back fidelity, bravery, and integrity to the FBI. You yourself have identified two important pillars in order to rebuild public confidence that include first, streamlining operations at headquarters while bolstering the presence of field agents across the nation. I believe you just spoke to that.
▶ 0:58:51and two uh second ensuring that the FBI operates within the openness necessary to rebuild trust. It's a a tall order uh given the record of some uh in the in recent years. Uh but I'm optimistic you'll be able to achieve it. I'd like to dig in on these pillars to get your perspective as we take your budget request into consideration and craft a final product. Mhm.
▶ 0:59:16Uh the president's skinny budget request rightly expresses its commitment to upholding the weapon undoing the weaponization of the FBI that pervades the previous administration, which includes targeting peaceful pro-life protesters, concerned parents at schoolboard meetings, and committed Catholics exercising their constitutionally protected rights to express their faith. Uh you described to us the state of the bureau from when you were confirmed.
▶ 0:59:41Today you highlight you highlighted uh with our attorney general more than 200 federal arrests for crimes targeting children. You also spoke to the reorganization necessary to meet the mission of the FBI. Uh the the president in his skinny budget also described reductions in quote pet projects uh from past administrations and duplicative agencies. Um, in addition to speaking to moving employees out of DC, can you expound upon this and and how you plan to reorient the bureau under this request?
▶ 1:00:11Absolutely. So, part of the process is not just putting people out sporadically um throwing darts on the map. What we've done is we've taken a process with the careers at the FBI and said, "Where are some of the most violent crime places in America?" And we've aortioned the plus-ups across every single state in this country based on percentages of where violent crime has been in an uptick on homicides, on gang violence, on drug overdoses across the country.
▶ 1:00:37And so, for instance, in the state of Virginia, we're going to give a plus up approximately 20 folks from the FBI should we have our full budgetary requirements. And then the next step is what do you do with them in the field? And what we do with them is what we've already done, Congressman Klein, in the state of in the Commonwealth of Virginia, excuse me, is we stood up the first in the country, interdiction task force, where we brought in inter agency partners from around the state of Virginia and the sheriff's offices and the FBI and our DHS partners and embedded them in an FBI building 50 miles that
▶ 1:01:07way and said, "Go to work because this is a hotbed of criminal activity." And in one month, the Virginia Homeland Security Task Force, as it was dubbed, arrested over 500 violent felons. 500 violent felons. And that wasn't by doing any new process or creating a new way to get after crime. It was done by letting good cops be good cops. And we want to take that plus up and that model to every state in the country. Not because I said it works, but because it actually worked.
▶ 1:01:37and we've been asked by other governors and other senators and other representatives to bring that to their to their states and that's exactly what we want to do and we're planning to do that here and commend you for the accomplishments uh in the Commonwealth. Um prior to the swearing in of the current administration, a report was released detailing how federal law enforcement used its virtually unchecked access to private financial data to deputize the financial sector as a de facto investigative arm.
▶ 1:02:03particular under your predecessor, the FBI manipulated the suspicious activity report filing process by encouraging financial institutions to file SS based on names and other criteria shared by the FBI. This process appears to bypass requirements of the bank secrecy act and allowed the FBI and possibly thousands of other law enforcement officials to obtain warrantless access to American sensitive financial data through a process known as Fininsen Query.
▶ 1:02:28Additionally, it appears that though 27,000 federal officials are able to download BSA data onto their own internal agency systems outside the purview of Fininsen regulators through the agency integrated access program. You've been working well with the judiciary committee where I also sit to provide some transparency into the past actions of the bureau before your tenure. Could you describe some of the work you've done on this to still achieve the major successes you've had on arresting violent criminals while preserving civil liberties of Americans?
▶ 1:02:56It's a balance that the FBI must strike every single day to achieve the law enforcement capabilities. We've already talked about that. But to achieve uh the capabilities of restoring public trust and working with our overseers in Congress, we must actually work with our overseers in Congress. And every appropriate request for information, we've delivered upon. And then it is up to the men and women in Congress to say, "We need you to look at X, Y, or Z. We don't think this is working.
▶ 1:03:22Can you change this regulation or policy?" I'm not the expert on all of it, but what I can do is provide you with every documentation because you represent the men and women of America. And in my opinion, y'all are the custodians of the records that we hold except in some very scarce national security instances. But we have provided on a large basis unredacted documentation for every appropriate request we've received and we'll continue to do that because it allows us to work with Congress directly to improve the process and make sure there are no warrantless seizures of American persons datas. Thank you.
▶ 1:03:52Yield Mr. Ivy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me just follow up with where I think Mr. Klein left off. Um, when I was on the judiciary committee last year, there was the 702 issue was a very close vote. Um, but the compromise essentially was that we were going to continue to allow the FBI to do warrantless searches.
▶ 1:04:14Uh and this is on the specific databases that um that there's access to but um you know in order to try and be preemptive with respect to terrorism or other types of uh efforts where you wouldn't have time to get the warrant. Very close vote but the compromise was that reports were going to be filed by the FBI on a regular basis I think to the judiciary committee. My understanding is we haven't gotten one yet. So, I would encourage you to do that.
▶ 1:04:43And if you're not familiar with what happened with during that era, I'd encourage you to take a look. It was one of the really most problematic scenarios the FBI had in the last uh last four years. Um, Mr. Patel, I'll tell you, I I didn't support your nomination or your confirmation, but I appreciate what you're saying here today, especially the offer you to work with us in trying to address a lot of these concerns.
▶ 1:05:07I think I appreciate what you said about your um the budget issue because if if you're saying you think you need more than what the skinny budget's giving, I strongly agree. Uh I you know I was really concerned to see the 540 million plus cut to the FBI and the rationale was that it was going to be you know DEI schoolboard meetings and gender ideology and there's not a half a billion dollars worth of cuts related to that regardless of how one might feel about whatever
▶ 1:05:37those issues were. And I really do believe that the FBI is the greatest investigative body in the world and the strongest asset that you have are your your team, your human resources there. And uh if I think you said something about eliminating,00 positions and having to fire 13 more that you didn't want to do that, but given potential budgetary impacts, you might have to do that. That would be horrible for the FBI, especially right now.
▶ 1:06:05So, we certainly will work with you uh to protect your budget. Couple quick points with respect to your testimony. Um, one concern that I did have was, you know, there were some things that you really didn't touch on um in in your testimony. Um, and I I appreciate Teslas as an issue and whoever setting those on fire should be held accountable for that, but we've got serious political violence here in the United States.
▶ 1:06:32It's a lot of homegrown activity that we need to to focus on. Your predecessor testified a lot about it and um you know we u understood the importance of that. Some of us had a chance to work on the task force that um the attempted assassination of now President Donald Trump and I know you've got another pending case with respect to Mara Lago.
▶ 1:06:56I think that might be one of the things you want to talk about, not just what happened then, but what's being done uh following up on that u because there continue to be issues. Governor Shapiro's house being set on fire um was another horrific example of that. uh also domestic terrorism with respect. You mentioned New Orleans in your oral testimony today, but that's the kind of homegrown terrorism issues that I think we need to to focus on and really only the FBI can get at that in the way that we need to have done.
▶ 1:07:26Uh Brian Thompson, that assassination, the United Healthcare CEO is another example of that. Um the political violence or political crime, I'm sorry, violent crime issue that you just mentioned a moment ago. I've got mixed feelings about the decentralization of your staff.
▶ 1:07:45I take the point that you want to make and you know I my only encouragement would be that you take it slow especially with specialized positions to see we did a mini version of this here in Washington DC like I don't know 25 years ago when they we went to political um neighborhood prosecution and policing. Some of it worked and some of it didn't.
▶ 1:08:07some of the specialty units like the homicide unit needed to be recentralized again because you needed that expertise you know concentrated and the current office uh you know whether it's political integrity investigations that might be one that you want to keep centralized civil rights is another one so I hope you'll um consider uh being careful about how you move forward with that um and I you know my district is Maryland we love having uh you guys nearby I and
▶ 1:08:37certainly would love to have you come out even more. So if you're if you're going to do sending the agents out, my request would be that you target jurisdictions where they have serious violent crime. I was a local DA there. We were able to do joint prosecutions. The US attorney at that time was um Rod Rosenstein. We did some joint work RICO cases. We didn't have RICO capability. We took the cases to him. This is MS-13.
▶ 1:09:02And so, you know, when you do joint efforts like that, it can really help local prosecutors and local law enforcement because the FBI has resources that they can bring to bear that we just don't uh at the local level. Uh and the impact can be really significant. So, I I thank you for what you've done so far and your offer to work with us and I look forward to working with you in the future. Thank you, sir. Mr. Gonzalez. Oh, thank you, Chairman. Thank you, director, for being here. Thank you for your willingness to serve our great country and I look forward to working together.
▶ 1:09:32Uh you know, it's not only how big the check is, it's where the check is going. And I love hearing some of your ideas of how we reform. How do we make it how we make things better? Um you know, I I represent a district that's nearly half of the southern border, been ground zero for a lot of the chaos that is happening. You already know this, but you have some of the best field offices in this area, right? The the the FBI office in El Paso doing amazing work. The FBI office in San Antonio doing amazing work. FBI office in Houston doing amazing work.
▶ 1:10:03Did I hear you correctly that there's a possibility as you rightsize as you kind of once again put agents back out into the field. Is it Did I hear you right nearly a hundred agents maybe coming to About 90. Okay, perfect. Perfect. We'll round up. We're we're we're here in the house. You we're on pro. We'll round up. U I love it. I think that's exactly the right answer. Right. Let's get the bureaucrats out of DC and let's get the agents back in the field doing the work.
▶ 1:10:30Um the the part I'd say too is your task forces are working and once again I look forward to working together chatting about this more. Task forces work right and I want to start with the CT task force counterterrorism uh task force. I think that's very important. The terrorist threat is as real as ever and getting ahead of that I think is a big part of that. Once again, the FBI is the the leader in this.
▶ 1:10:54You know, they're the ones that you you're you're the agency that has all the um all the the expertise and the ability to do that. But you need the force multipliers. You need the local and the state agencies to come alongside all hands- on deck to tackle this. The other thing I want to highlight for you and then we I'd like to get your response is these anti-gang task forces. Another task force that I think have just done amazing work specifically going after some of these criminal illegal aliens, right?
▶ 1:11:23these TDAs, these MS-13s, these gangs that are in our country to the tune of over yesterday the uh the uh uh Secretary of Homeland Homeland Security Chrissy Gnome, you know, she told me there's there's over 600,000 known convicted criminal aliens in our country. Can you talk a little bit about the importance of the anti-gang task force? Thank you, Congressman.
▶ 1:11:46And you're right, the best cases I ever made as a terrorism prosecutor was on the task force because we had embedded state and local authorities with federal authorities, state and federal prosecutors working every day together bringing cases where you could bring cases because sometimes you couldn't bring them in state court and sometimes you can't bring them in federal court. And so the gang task force is u you know right up there with the JTF model.
▶ 1:12:13It serves the same purpose by allowing, my best example is the Virginia Homeland Security Task Force. We simply allowed access, placement, and location. And then we got out of the way. We being leadership. We are not running the cases in the field. Agents are intel analysts are synthesizing intelligence. Not me. Putting them in simply the same room and giving them some resources. We don't need to recreate or be super innovative. And that's the beauty of the gang task force.
▶ 1:12:43The folks in there are experienced career operators at every level that they operate at. They know what they're doing. What they're not currently allowed to do is get together enough. And that's simply what we're trying to do with part of this plus up. And again, it's and and you're right, Congressman Ivy, we're not doing it um overnight. It's a process that's going to take about a year if we get it right across the board because it takes time to transfer expertise, but at the same time, we're not going to gap expertise in headquarters.
▶ 1:13:11And just to be clear, we're not taking out the headquarters footprint. We're leaving a large footprint here still. Um, we are just adjusting to the violent crime and gangs are one of them. I did a I spot on. I did a round table in San Antonio. We had FBI, we had HSI, we had ATF, we had local law enforcement, we had state law enforcement. I think that's more we need more of that that we need to we need to turn turn the volume up on that and and once again move some of the bureaucrats.
▶ 1:13:38The other thing, you know, I represent a district that's it's larger than it's larger than 30 states, right? And there's a part of my district, one of my counties produces more natural gas than anywhere else in the country. And I want to highlight something for you that has worked. And this is the Perium Basin oil theft task force. And oil theft in West Texas is a real deal, right? Especially with the border crisis that we had to deal with over the last four years. And I would ask that you please continue to to take a look at that. That that is a program.
▶ 1:14:07Once again, without the FBI being at the core of providing the intelligence and the expertise, it's really difficult for some of these sheriffs and, you know, some of these these uh local municipalities to tackle these organized crimes. So, as you're working through the budget process, as you're working through what what has to stick and what has to go, that that Perian Basin oil theft task force is very important. I'd love to get your thoughts on it the time I have left.
▶ 1:14:35Well, I'm slightly biased, Congressman, because I do some of my hunting out in the Peran Basin and out in the Glass Mountains. So, I'm familiar with that just by a matter of being there on the ground a lot. But it's an example of not just your district, but if you go out into Idaho and you go out into Texas or Arkansas or California even or where have you, the localized problems that the national level can't understand or comprehend cannot be comprehended or understood by putting more people in Washington DC. That's what I'm trying to accomplish.
▶ 1:15:02These folks have the expertise and the knowledge and if we put them in the field with your experts, then they can relay back to us, hey, did you know about this big oil problem down in West Texas, sadly most Americans don't, but honestly, most Americans shouldn't. It's not their responsibility. It's mine. And so that's what we're working towards. I'm looking to codify that. Love to continue to work with that on that and other things. Uh, thank you again for your testimony today. Chairman, I yield back. Thank you, sir. Mr. Morelli. Uh, thank you, uh, Mr. chairman for the meeting and thank you uh director Patel for for being here.
▶ 1:15:32I I want to just preface this. I I I I feel important to say that um I think while the history of the FBI has not been a perfect one, the goal of the agency has always been focused as it should be on uh keeping Americans safe, the safety of American citizens.
▶ 1:15:48And I think I am concerned uh about and I think millions of Americans as well are concerned about any suggestions uh that there will be a political agenda or adherence to the president's agenda as opposed to the safety of American citizens. And I appreciate everything you've said this afternoon and I'm grateful for it. I know I've been in the business of politics for a long time.
▶ 1:16:13the only thing I ever care about, whether it's the military or law enforcement, that it's professional and it's nonpartisan and that we uphold the rule of law and the Constitution of the United States. And I'm just very, very concerned about some of the things I hear from the Oval Office, not from your office necessarily, but from the Oval Office. And I hope that the president recognizes that the the FBI serves the American people and it serves the rule of law and the Constitution does not serve the president or any political agenda.
▶ 1:16:42And I I just want to feel honor bound to say that as a preference. So I I appreciate you being here. I first of all, do you believe it's your duty to uphold the Constitution of the United States? Mine and everybody at the FBI. I appreciate that, sir. Um I want to go back uh and I appreciate what everyone said. You know, the skinny budget, as we're calling it, is frustrating for appropriators because it's really hard to tell from the literally 10 lines and 100 words about the FBI what is envisioned here.
▶ 1:17:10And it calls for a cut of, as we've talked about, $545 million. I gather, as I'm piecing this together, I think roughly speaking, the proposed budget is about 10.7 billion. The president has asked for about 10.2 rough numbers. You're suggesting 11.2, which would be about a half a billion dollar increase. And I think I share, as my colleagues do, some interest in, first of all, recognizing what that increase would be and how it would acrue to the benefit of the American people.
▶ 1:17:37Can you just quickly and I I have a couple of different questions I'd ask you. Just tell me where you would focus that increase on because I'm concerned about the proposed cut and we have virtually nothing to go on here. Yeah. Very quickly just in the last three years um the FBI has um through budget cuts and CRs left vacant uh 1,000 permissions approximately every year. So right now while everybody thinks the FBI has 38,000 employees, we do on the books. we don't have 38,000 humans.
▶ 1:18:07So, year over year, those cuts have led to book attrition. Um, and in order to get some of those back and some of those vacant slots back, we need to actually fund them. And the rest of the funding would go to preventing the removal of an additional amount of agents. Well, look, I'm sure you share our frustration. You probably didn't like the proposed uh budget anymore than I think many of us did.
▶ 1:18:28So, we would encourage you as you're speaking to the president to encourage him both to uh speed up the process and also to uh uh to consider some of your uh recommendations. Uh earlier this week, there were reports by the attorney general's plans to dissolve the organized crime drug enforcement task task force by September 30th of this year. I find this deeply troubling. uh the task force recent success in my district.
▶ 1:18:53Just last week, we removed over 200 grams of fentinyl from the streets of Rochester, New York, where I'm privileged to represent. I did send earlier today a letter to the attorney general which I would ask unanimous consent to enter my re my letter into the record but expressing my concern over the decision and reminding the attorney general that funds appropriated by Congress for fiscal year 25 are required to be spent and the legality of the decision aside the FBI is an important member of that task force.
▶ 1:19:20I wonder if you could just share with me um the importance of the work to national security and uh and to the public and how if you've been consulted and what your views are on the uh efforts to decommission it. I I believe you're are you referring to OSED, sir? I'm sorry. Are you referring to OSEDF? Yes, that's correct.
▶ 1:19:37My understanding, and I'm not going to speak for the attorney general and how the department views it, is that the um the the cut is only to one singular office, not to the OSED program at large, which the FBI um has a large uh authority over. And so I have not been informed yet, and again, I'm not speaking for the AG, that the OCEDF program itself would be shuttered in any way. Okay.
▶ 1:20:02the I I just and again we're getting it from news reports because we're not getting it uh from the department. It said um a DOJ bud budget analyst at uh OCD defaf I think that's how you say it um would be zeroed out uh in the budget um and also and I just note uh parathetically that it brought in $2 billion in proceeds. It cost 500 million to run the program. So that's it honestly it's good ROI. Yeah, it is good ROI.
▶ 1:20:30So, I'd love to come back to you if I could or have further conversations with your office about it because I would like to see it continue. I think it does amazing work and is well worth the investment that we make. So, again, thank you for being here, sir. No problem, sir. Mr. Alfred, uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Appreciate that. Uh, Director Patel, good to see you again. Thank you for being here.
▶ 1:20:56How many employees currently work for the It's approximately 35,000ish, about 13,000 special agents when we're full up. We're not quite 3,000 intelligence analysts. Yes, sir. 19,000 professional support staff. Yes, sir. Is that about right? Mhm. You say that you have eliminated 11,000 employees. Is that correct? No. No, sir. I think how how many how many people have been let go from the FBI?
▶ 1:21:26I don't believe I fired anybody. No one has been, but you you could be firing up to how many? Well, I could if the I would be forced to remove an additional 1300 employees if we um go along with the budget that's out right now. So, that's where the $545 million in cuts would come from, right? And and if just real quick, so a large portion of that also people ask why we didn't don't have that in our coffers currently.
▶ 1:21:54It's because there was a 2% and rightly so pay raise. So, we used a lot of funding that we received in the last cycle to make sure everybody got paid what they need to get paid. Were there any deferred resignations? Uh, I believe a number of individuals have taken that the program offered by the Justice Department. Would hiring or firing have anything to do with loyalty to the president of the United States? No. Would retribution have anything to do with uh any hiring or firing decisions? None whatsoever, sir.
▶ 1:22:24Would retaliation have anything to do with any hiring or firing positions? No sir. The fentinel crisis is very real. I had a friend who's lost two sons in the last three years to fel poisoning. I prefer to call it poisoning uh because that's what's happening. China, Mexico poisoning our young people, killing some 300 on average a day in America. Um, we've discussed this before a couple of weeks ago.
▶ 1:22:51Uh, with the southern border almost 94% secure now, the attention uh is turning towards the northern border. Would you care to expound on that, please? Um, I could talk about this for a long time, but I'll keep it short. Basically, if you look at last year versus this year, our enemies and adversaries, as I said in the beginning, are adapting, have gotten smarter. So, a lot of the CCP uh processors of fentinol precursors are no longer going to the narot traffickers down south. They're going down there into terrorist organizations and shipping it up north.
▶ 1:23:20They're making it in Canada and then they're dumping it down here. Why? Because of the tyranny of distance. We've got a lockdown on most of the southern border. And just to highlight for you, the known or suspected terrorist statistics entering this country illegally. Last year was about 350. Um the overwhelming majority of them came in from the northern border. This year we're on par right now with about known or suspected terrorists entering the country from the north and southern border. And it's about 45 each. So it's not just drugs that are coming in, but it's those looking to do harm on our way of life. How do we counter that?
▶ 1:23:50We need a literal full government approach across the board, state levelwide approach. But we also need to take uh our adversaries more seriously overseas and not fall to the u the uh traditional position that if we're successful in one area, they won't adapt. They always do.
▶ 1:24:14You mentioned earlier in your testimony and some answers to previous questions about relocating personnel to the interior of America, getting them out of Washington DC. How many would be going to the Kansas City regional office? Approximately 37 positions to Missouri, 33 to Kansas City, one each to Topeka, Witchah, Jefferson City, and two to Springfield. And why are they needed there? You said that you're sending these to the most violent places, I believe is a quote. So, I didn't decide that.
▶ 1:24:42I asked the people at the bureau who've been doing this job for 20 plus years, tell me where we need to send agents, intel analysts, and SOS's. and these are the places they told me to send them. And why? Because of the proportion of violent crime per capita in those regions needs to be covered down on.
▶ 1:24:59Now, that's not to say, and I don't want to say Kansas City has an explosion in of itself, it's violent crime, but Kansas City covers down on a large area um in Missouri and its surrounding states that have an explosion in violent crime and that's why we're sending them there. Do we have the facilities to accommodate these personnel moving out into the regions? You do. It's been a lot of conversation about a new FBI headquarters. With the 30 seconds left, I know that you have uh an idea of moving the headquarters to the uh Reagan building. Is that correct?
▶ 1:25:30We're currently in the process of reviewing options to keep the FBI within Washington DC, but we will most certainly be leaving the Hoover building because it is simply unsafe for the FBI personnel. Director, thank you for your service. I yield back. Miss Dean. Thank you, Chairman Rogers, Ranking Member Mang, Chairman Cole, Ranking Member Deloro. Uh, and thank you, Mr. Patel, for your testimony and for being here today.
▶ 1:25:59I've been looking at the president's 120word FBI budget request, the so-called skinny, I'll call it, Ombic request that states that quote, "The undoing of the weaponization of the FBI is one of the administration's top priorities." The weaponization of the FBI, that is something that deeply concerns me. It should concern all of us. And yet, since taking office, President Trump has been on a revenge tour.
▶ 1:26:28He has targeted individuals, universities, law firms with executive orders to cut them out or to make them come under his will. He has used ICE to disappear US citizens without due process. and he's fully ignored a unanimous Supreme Court order and then over the weekend wasn't sure if he was obligated to uphold the Constitution of the United States.
▶ 1:26:54In your book, your recent book, Government Gangsters, you include an appendix with a list of names that people have referred to as an enemy's list. Now, I know you will claim it's just an appendix, not an enemy's list. So, let's focus on how the president sees it, on what the president calls it. And you proudly display his quote on the front cover of your book.
▶ 1:27:18The president calls this a brilliant road map, a blueprint, and I have not even raised your storied children's book, The Plot Against the King. It concerns me how many people from this blueprint have been targeted with executive orders and FBI investigations.
▶ 1:27:37The FBI cannot be weaponized and under your leadership, it has been nothing but a weapon alongside the president to go after the president's perceived opponents to stifle dissent and free speech. A few weeks ago, as we saw through a social media post that you quickly deleted, the FBI arrested a judge in Wisconsin for correctly asking ICE officials if they had a judicial warrant instead of an administrative warrant, which they did not have.
▶ 1:28:05Despite this judge following the law, on the morning of April the 25th, the FBI arrested the judge in an escalation of the weaponization of the FBI under your leadership. Let me be be clear, a functioning democracy does not lock up judges. I am gravely concerned about the utter lack of independence of the FBI and its weaponization under your leadership.
▶ 1:28:31I am concerned that the president is using this book, your book, as a blueprint. As he has said, it's a blueprint for revenge. And I am concerned that your eagerness, a childlike giddiness to carry out the president's revenge tour, you've shown yourself to be unserious in your statements before you were sworn in and some after. You've shown yourself unfit to lead this important agency.
▶ 1:28:58I was an impeachment manager for President Trump's second impeachment. It was a sad, solemn duty. And so I wanted to ask you about that, Mr. Patel. As you and the president continue to weaponize and investigate his perceived enemies as you followed this blueprint, when can I, a former impeachment manager, expect the FBI at my door? Ma'am, you want to know who was targeted by a weaponized FBI? me.
▶ 1:29:29You want to know how and why? You want to know what I'm doing to fix it about that? Let me move on. Well, you should read the book because there's no enemies list on that book. There are people that violated their constitutional obligations and their duties to the American people and they were rightly called out and you should give that book to every one of your constituents so they can read about it. I won't be doing that. That's their loss.
▶ 1:29:49During your Senate confirmation hearings, you repeatedly denied having any involvement as a private citizen in the firing of FBI officials who engaged in the prosecution against January 6th insurrectionists, the violent rioters who beat and killed Capitol police officers and whom you referred to as political prisoners. Since then, multiple whistleblowers have come forward and we know that you likely committed perjury.
▶ 1:30:15At the same hearing, you claimed you were not familiar with Stu Peters, an anti-semitic Holocaust denier, despite the fact that you appeared on Mr. Peters podcast eight separate times, eight times. And you claimed not to recall. Mr. Patel, my second question is, should we worry more about your memory or your veracity? We should worry more about your lack of cander. You're accusing me of committing perjury. Tell the American people how I broke the law and committed a felony.
▶ 1:30:44have the audacity to actually put the facts forward instead of lying for political banter so you can have a 20 second donation hit. The answer is both. I believe that the answer is you're failing, not me. My time. Go ahead, Mr. Patel.
▶ 1:31:07I believe that the members of the FBI, and I know many of them, many retired, 38,000 people, as you say, it's a little less than that now, deserve the very best, deserve extraordinary independence, deserve freedom from the fears of being investigated, the freedom of coming forward to make sure they're doing their job.
▶ 1:31:28And I'll I'll end with this that I think it's interesting that in your proposal today, you find yourself at a gulf of difference between you and the president. I wonder how you will resolve that. Will you go to the president and say, "We need 11.2 billion, not what you cut out of here. You're asking for more than a billion dollars than the president's request." Are you going to go to the president and straighten out that gulf?
▶ 1:31:56I'll do what I've always done and represent the American people, defend this country, and make sure the Constitution is always upheld and the FBI is never weaponized. Maybe you should do the same. So, you agree with the president when he says he doesn't know if he should uphold his constitutional duty? If you want to just keep putting words in my mouth, the TV cameras are outside. I thank you. I yield back again. This is an unserious uh moment sadly for the FBI. I yield back. More so for you, Mr.
▶ 1:32:27Thank you, Chairman Rogers, Director Patel, thank you for being here today. I'd like to also extend my thanks to your staff and the hardworking men and women of the FBI and for restoring America's trust in the FBI. I'd like to commend your efforts to move FBI personnel into the field rather than into the beltway where their work can be the most impact. Let me start by shining a light on my district, Alabama's fifth congressional district, which includes Huntsville, Alabama and Redstone Arsenal.
▶ 1:32:54The FBI's presence at Redstone Arsenal dates back over 50 years to 1971. Currently, FBI Redstone seats over 2,000 personnel and includes personnel from 20 of the FBI's 30 sections. Time and again, North Alabama has answered the call to support the FBI with a second to-none workforce, state-of-the-art facility, and plenty of room for costeffective and responsible growth. Director Patel, a few weeks ago you visited Redstone Arsenal in my hometown.
▶ 1:33:25Could you share with us what you saw while you were there and the impression the visit left with you? What I saw while I was there was the best example of what I've seen when appropriators work with the bureau to defend the nation. And I wish everybody would go down to Huntsville, Alabama. It is our premier premier experienced law enforcement capability center and training facility that the inter agency only wishes they had.
▶ 1:33:53Well, we have down there in cyber in long-range missile defense capabilities nested there with NASA and the department of defense and further programs including our terrorism explosive device center which the world relies on to stop bombs from going off and so much more is down in Huntsville, Alabama. And the reason it's there is because appropriators were brilliant enough to provide a space outside of Washington DC to take a geographic footprint and save money instead of rebuilding here in Washington to do it for half the cost in Alabama.
▶ 1:34:23And that's why we're moving 500 FBI employees this year to Huntsville because the technical expertise they possess and we do not want to remove from the FBI is nested in Huntsville and not Washington DC. And in order to train the future men and women of the FBI, the DHS, the DoD, and every other intelligence agency we have, they're already asking us when do we get to go to Redstone? So, I encourage everyone to go down there.
▶ 1:34:48Director Patel, I applaud your commitment to making America safe again and returning the FBI to its core mission. Uh we must continue to get our dedicated FBI agents back into the field and out of the bel beltway to protect America. This is uh no better there's no better place to achieve this than Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. Huntsville provides the most cost-effective location uh distinct partnership opportunities, a high quality of life for personnel, and a remarkable talent pool.
▶ 1:35:16Director Patel, uh could you expand on the plans for moving personnel and programs to Huntsville as uh it's often called FBI HQ2? What are the timelines for executing this? and uh do you have the necessary resources to execute this move? Taking those in reverse order, the short answer is no. So, we've got the north campus and the south campus down there. North campus largely constructed and filled. the south campus has been uh the the land has been leveled and the plots have been mapped out.
▶ 1:35:46And in order to fill it and in order to build buildings three and four and five as we call them and the new training facilities that we uh and the appropriators have already looked into and approved, we're going to need another 160 million to accomplish that. And once those buildings are built in the next three years, we will move another 13 maybe it's 1400 employees down to Huntsville because again we are not removing them out of Washington DC to remove them.
▶ 1:36:11We need a place that allows their skill set to be met and it's not in Washington DC and tragically it's not in Quantico either. I wish it worked cuz then we wouldn't move them but that's what we're looking to build is for the future. It also gives us a landing platform in a more centrallylo area of the country for these specialized teams to deploy out into the rest of America when something goes boom or when there's a tragic accident.
▶ 1:36:34So I am asking the appropriators not only for the $145ish million to finish the build but the 60 million for the O and M to keep the facilities up. Um, with the great work occurring in Huntsville, I want to highlight the inter agency collaboration between the FBI, ATF, DHS to address uh, bombing instance and the use of explosives. The FBI's hazardous device school, terrorist explosive device analytic center or TDAC are located at Redstone.
▶ 1:37:04The ATF's National Center for Explosive Training and Research and the US Bomb Data Center also located in Huntsville. Likewise, DHS routinely collaborates with these partner uh these partners specifically their office for bombing prevention. Director Patel, could you talk a little bit about the inter agency efforts to address bombing instance and the use of Yes, I'll I'll try to be brief.
▶ 1:37:30Just like with drone technology, our adversaries when it comes to explosive devices, their technical capabilities have exponentially increased. And in order to keep up and stay ahead and not behind of the boom, what we have to do is train. And and this is another point of training for Redstone Arsenal. Everyone that's qualified as a bomb technician in the FBI and the rest of the country gets that training in Huntsville, Alabama. And that's the reason we need these schools to exist.
▶ 1:37:55So to stay ahead of the fight and these explosive devices that are being engineered in people's basements and places across the world and they're being shipped here, we need to know how to shut those off before they explode. And that's what Redstone does. Thank you, sir. Mr. Chairman, I yield back. Mr. Van. Yes, sir. Thank you, Chairman. Uh, thank you, Director Patel.
▶ 1:38:14Uh, in a local situation, uh, in Marville, Indiana, within my district, I have a high intense high-intensity drug trafficking uh, area, Haida, which receives federal funding uh, that works with the local law enforcements. We are the crossroads of America near Chicago. The drugs that you're talking about are transported through those areas all the time. with these budget cuts. Can you talk about how those Haida and agencies will be funded? Absolutely. Thank you, sir.
▶ 1:38:39Um, it's like any other successful mission set that we have at the FBI and Haida I worked on as a terrorism prosecutor as myself. Um, extremely critical because like some of the other situations across the country, that region has been recognized unfortunately because of the high-intensity drug flow. In order to countermand it, we have to keep these task forces open up and running and funded.
▶ 1:39:02But in order to do that, we can't just flood it only with federal funds and federal personnel committed to working with our state and local partners because that's what makes Haida successful. My experience in Haida wasn't um in your district, but down in the Southern District of Florida, and I can't imagine it being too different in terms of how we proceed and how to make that successful. Okay. My next question is just recently uh you had a visit to the National Center for Missing Exploited Children. Uh just please tell me how that cyber tip line and how that program's future looks with these $500 million cuts.
▶ 1:39:33We actually u partner wonderfully with NickMick and um we've committed to allowing our FBI employees to remain there no matter what. We will find a way to fill that mission set even if you know even under the most austere of budget cuts because what they do is exceptional. If people don't know they need to go there and see it it's right in Arlington, Virginia. They find missing children from 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 years ago and they provide treatment to those that have been abused. Okay. And so you have my commitment, sir, that we'll do it. Um, I appreciate that.
▶ 1:40:01And and according to the domestic terrorism operations sections, uh, the internal tagging system used to track domestic terrorism investigations uh, was eliminated and the staff of 16 was reduced. Can you tell me that future and where that where you hold that program? Sir, if I may, can I get back to you on that in writing because I'm not familiar with that off my head. Okay. Then in your written testimony, you had talked about cyber security. Uh I'm going to tie two things together.
▶ 1:40:29The FBI agents, are they still currently at the end of every week uh emailing the five things that they've accomplished? Uh I'm glad you raised that point, sir. We never did that. Um I stopped. The FBI agents were never asked to put in their goals in which they accomplished.
▶ 1:40:44The the reason why I say that is because I had a specific conversation at a retirement party of a chief from an agent who expressed to me that after he had chased a car down 8094 who had stabbed a family member and he left his home uh and was able to uh prevent that individual from killing someone else because it was cross state lines that he had to go back and then that next day was told he had to fill out his emails of what he
▶ 1:41:14That email was sent across government agencies. So it was sent to the FBI. It was sent to So you just said it was never sent to the FBI. So was it or was it not? It was sent to the FBI. I as a director of the FBI said we are not Who sent it? We are not responding to it. It came from a general account at the department. Okay. So then my next question is that information that my FBI agent in my district sent to that agency, how is that information You're I'm sorry. Are you saying the agent responded to that email?
▶ 1:41:44Are you saying they did not? I told the workforce not to. But you just told me that they received the email. We did. So without this, let's just assume that they did. Where did that information go? And how is it protected? That information would have only been sent to their immediate supervisor and every supervisor in the bureau was told if they received any such information, it is not to be actioned in any way. So what happened with that information with the supervisors? I don't know.
▶ 1:42:10Well, I'll have to get back to you on that if any was collected, but if it was, it was So, you said that the FBI that a different agency sent that email. What was that agency? It came from the Department of Justice. Okay. And those emails never went back to the Department of Justice who requested it? No, sir. Okay. And you're 100% confident of that? Yes, sir. Okay. The information that uh the supervisors had from those agents, where did that go?
▶ 1:42:38that should not have been transmitted anywhere. We got on top of it fast enough where I believe in all because you thought it was wrong. I thought the Why did you prevent it? Because the operational mandate that we have at the bureau in my opinion prohibited the public disclosure of that information across our media. So to be perfectly clear, the Department of Justice got it I I'm not speaking for the Department of Justice as you are saying that that directive was in complete conflict of what your procedures and processes are.
▶ 1:43:09My procedures and processes are under the Department of Justice. I'm saying as a subordinate of the Department of Justice. That's where the email came from. I don't know where it came from on top of them. But your directive was to make sure that the Department of Justice did not get the FBI information. That no one got it except the supervisors. Why would they request it if they would never get it? Well, the supervisors were told to stand down. What I'm trying to say is when that email came in, we acted as fast as we could.
▶ 1:43:36I think the same day to say we are not in a position to do that. Everybody hit pause till we figure out what to do. And the end result was we at the FBI are not complying with that request to publicly do so. And we told agents um that if you feel the need to express that information to your supervisors, only do so in the classified system. Okay.
▶ 1:44:00The information that I received that that in that that personal conversation that I had that in that agent didn't seem like he felt the need, he felt it was a directive. I thank you for you your forthcoming. I look forward to working with you. The purpose of me bringing up this questioning was to make sure that that information is secure. Yes, sir. I'll I'll double check. Mr. Moore, yield Thank you, Mr.
▶ 1:44:28Chairman, and thank you, Director Patel, for being here. Um, so I one of the things I wanted to touch on and you mentioned in your comments and I think this is just wonderful is that one of the metrics you're looking at as you're moving these agents out into the field is opioid related deaths. Uh my state of West Virginia, we have the highest per capita opioid deaths in the entire country. U it's unfortunately not even close.
▶ 1:44:57And as you're moving these agents out of Washington and out into the field, I believe you recently toured our uh sieges building there in Clarksburg, West Virginia, which I think is a great facility, which is in my district. And um is that facility um going to receive any additional FBI Thank you, Congressman.
▶ 1:45:23Yeah, touring sieges was an incredible opportunity for me to understand what I don't think most Americans and most of the world doesn't. The reason we are able to technically relay information on a lifetime basis throughout the country and throughout the world is because of the criminal justice information system hubbed in West Virginia and all its um subordinate capabilities. And what we want to do is expand um a little bit of footprint out there because we have so much land already paid for.
▶ 1:45:49And so yes, in my uh move to shift resources outside of Washington DC, I would envision going more not just to sieges. Though the state of West Virginia would also receive a plus up of um eight um at least employees should I get the budgetary requirements. And then you mentioned and there is there's a thousand acres out there at SEIS. It's it's quite large.
▶ 1:46:14Is there um is there additional resources that you need to be able to build out there at sieges? Well, unlike unlike uh Congressman Strong and Redstone, um I don't have a prior appropriation um that begin uh new building construction in OM. So, um we would need that. Um we've got the space for it. We've got the footprint for it and we have already the Manning to move into it.
▶ 1:46:40And what we have is aging systems that are aging out in Washington DC in the NCR that either would have to be upgraded here at a monumental expense or moved right out to West Virginia. And you wouldn't know this off top of your head, but perhaps you could come back to us what that number looks like in terms of being able to expand that footprint, what that appropriation would have to be for you to be able to expand the footprint out there in Clarksburg at Sieges. Sorry, I could get back to you on that in writing. Yeah, that would be great.
▶ 1:47:10Um I I in So you said in total it would be an eight it'd be eight additional agents that be going to West Virginia or outside of Sieges. Outside of Sieges and then how many additional at Sieges? In Sieges we are looking to move in um the problem is is almost every seat in Sieges is filled. Oh okay. So that's the issue we're running into because we've maxed out our spacing there. So to have a bigger footprint, we would just need new space. Okay.
▶ 1:47:40And um Mr. Chairman, if it's appropriate, maybe perhaps we could engage in a conversation to uh to identify if appropriate some additional resources to help uh director Patel seat these individuals since uh we don't have the space currently out at CES. We got the acorage. We got a thousand acres out there, but we just don't have that. So maybe that's something you could follow up with the chairman and staff with. Happy to. I I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 1:48:09Thank you, Mr. Clyde. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, first, uh, FBI Director Patel, thank you for being here today. Um, as we all know, during the four years of the Biden Harris administration, the once greatly respected FBI had been increasingly politicized and weaponized, drifting further from its core mission, and that is to protect and defend all American citizens.
▶ 1:48:35Director Patel, I know you've been very new in the position, just a couple two, three months, and you uh have a difficult task ahead of you, but I am very pleased and thankful for your confirmation as uh I believe you are one of the best things that has happened to the FBI in at least the last decade, maybe two decades.
▶ 1:48:55Um, under the Biden Harris administration, we saw the FBI weaponized against conservative ideologies and more specifically former targeted former President Biden's chief political rival, now President Donald Trump.
▶ 1:49:09Since President Trump first announced his candidacy in 2016, corrupt actors within the FBI unfairly targeted him, beginning with illegal surveillance of his campaign and administration based on a now debunked dossier funded by Hillary Clinton's campaign, leading eventually to the unprecedented armed raid by the FBI on his home in Mara Lago. This politicization and extends beyond President Trump.
▶ 1:49:34The FBI under the Biden Harris administration also acted against the First Amendment rights of everyday Americans. Armed agents raided the home of pro-life activist Mark Hal, pointing weapons at his family over a peaceful protest. Whistleblowers also revealed that the FBI's counterterrorism division labeled concerned parents as potential threats simply for opposing radical gender policies in schools.
▶ 1:49:58I am pleased to see that the president's budget request for FY 2026 directly addresses some of these concerns, stating that the administration is committed to rooting out the weaponization in the FBI. So, can you outline for me the steps that the FBI is or that you are taking to restore the FBI's credibility and ensure that it operates in a nonpartisan impartial agency committed to protecting the rights and safety of all Americans? Thank you, Congressman.
▶ 1:50:25What we're doing is the results we're seeing in Georgia in Atlanta um specifically are working and the the baseline is simple. The field level agents and intel analysts will decide what cases to open and shut based on one constitutional standard alone. A reasonable articulable basis that meets the FBI dying requirements and the requirements of the constitution to do so. It is a yes or no. It is not a gray zone. It is not our job as FBI agents to make prosecutorial decisions and we will not.
▶ 1:50:54We will open cases to investigate and we will refer matters to the Department of Justice. And when you see that methodology and ethos transcend the FBI, you see what you've seen in Atlanta in the last 3 months, which is 255 violent criminals offenders arrested. 72 kgs of fentinol taken off the street. That's 5 a half million people dead. That's off the street. You've seen seizures of 11 kilograms of cocaine.
▶ 1:51:21um 5,000 pounds of elicit narcotics and that's enough lethal doses in total to wipe out half your state if the FBI agents follow the Constitution singularly. That's what happens and that's my standard. That's great to hear because I I appreciate that very much. Uh Director Patel, I also want to address a recent incident that has had a lot of my colleagues on the left, not me. Okay. Uh up in arms.
▶ 1:51:44Two weeks ago, federal law enforcement officers arrested Milwaukee cir circuit court judge Hannah Dugan on charges of the obstruction of an official proceeding after evidence came to light that she shielded an illegal agent or alien rather from federal agents. So does title 18 section 1505 of the United States code titled obstruction of proceedings before departments, agencies, and committees prohibit individuals from obstructing or impeding the due and proper administration of the law?
▶ 1:52:15Generally speaking, Congressman, since that case is open, not commenting on that. Okay, fair enough. All right. All right. Well, I commend the FBI for its prompt action regarding the judge's alleged criminal behavior. Um, that tells me that that no matter what position you're in, all right, you will be held to one standard, equal justice under law. That's true. Thank you. All right.
▶ 1:52:37Um, in recent years, uh, particularly during the first Trump administration, we've witnessed state and local officials openly expressing their intent to obstruct federal law. Um, especially regarding immigration enforcements. This has contributed to the rise of so-called sanctuary cities where local authorities have publicly stated that they will not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts.
▶ 1:53:00So, how does the FBI intend to respond when when judges or other officials, elected officials, continue to take actions that hinder federal law enforcement such as those observed in Milwaukee? The FBI can only enter spaces under the Constitution that it is permitted to do so. We don't look at the position you're in, what your job is, where you come from, how much money you make, or with your e ethnicity is.
▶ 1:53:24And um for me sitting here as the first minority ever to be the FBI director, I take that responsibility even more exceptionally so because there has to be a color-blind system of justice. And we will execute the FBI's mandate of protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution to just that. It will be singularly applied to every single person in America. And not just that, it will be singularly applied to every single person within the FBI because no one at the bureau is above the law either. Thank you. And one last quick thing.
▶ 1:53:55Um you had mentioned the need for additional uh building construction in Huntsville uh at Redstone. I believe that that there's a $500 million in the CJS building account and about $800 million in the FSG account as well. What was going to be slated for the new building that you might look at that as a as a resource. Thank you. I did not know that. I will look. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. And I yield. I yield, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. you.
▶ 1:54:25I think we are uh ready to wrap up here, but I will yield myself three minutes. In closing, Mr. Director, u the drug war killing our beautiful young people.
▶ 1:54:48Uh but we got a bit of a ray of In the last couple of weeks, CDC now says that overdose deaths from 30%. In the last year, uh that's the good news. The bad news is 70% of that was fentinel, overdose deaths from fentinel.
▶ 1:55:20Um, I was happy to see the news story over the last couple of days of the very successful seizure and uh in the west of the US uh of seizures.
▶ 1:55:45The cartels are the culprit. The drugs are bad, but they have to have this national international organization in place infiltrating every metropolitan area in the US and Cartels, tell us what you're doing or plan to do to get at the cartels.
▶ 1:56:15and destroy the system that's bringing these poison pills home. That's just it, Mr. Chairman. So, in the first couple of months since we took over, we just two months ago, no, one month ago, um, extradited 29 Mexican national cartel figures out of Mexico. So, what we're doing is going down there to Mexico and saying, "If you're going to import drugs and kill our children, you're coming here to face American justice." And that was just one trip. We've had three since I've been in the seat.
▶ 1:56:42That's part one of the issue, taking the fight down to the cartels in Mexico to the extent that the FBI can. We're partnering with our intel community partners and ultimately with the Department of Defense and whatever the administration decides is appropriate to take further action there, but that is still being worked out overseas.
▶ 1:57:00One of the things I'd like to highlight, and I'm glad we were able to get this in, is the fentinol is killing our children and our youth, but no one is looking at the precursor machines and factories in mainland China. We are. We started that the day I hit the seat. And I did not accept the answer that whack-a-ole is how you do it because if you take down one, then another 50 gets stood up. Well, we're going to take down one plus the 50 and the 100 after that.
▶ 1:57:27But what we need is an all of government approach to focus on the precursor shipping in mainland China. Because if you stop that and you stop the shipments going to our allied nations such as Canada and Mexico and South America, then you stop their ability, the cartel's ability to make fentinol. And that's my big push at the FBI on the fentinel crisis. I wish you speed.
▶ 1:57:51Miss Bing, would you like to Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um I thank you, Director Patel, and your team for being here. Uh I am disappointed that the chair is not allowing a second round of questioning. Uh this is not typical, especially for an agency uh as large as this one. Um but I do thank you for being here. I thank you for your testimony.
▶ 1:58:16I thank you for your um previously stated willingness to uphold the constitution um to uphold the law um in restoring public trust for the agency and making sure that aortionments are accessible uh to the American people. Uh and I know that you are uh as you said in the midst of this appropriations process.
▶ 1:58:38Um you talked about the 11.2 2 billion that you personally believe would be helpful to be most for the FBI agency to be most effective. Uh and as we work together bipartisan like Mr. Morelli said to combat everything from violent crime to fentanel to terrorism uh we do want to work with you uh and we would love more additional information.
▶ 1:59:06Uh obviously we won't be able to do it during this hearing, but uh after the uh hearing uh on how we can uh get to the specifics where you arrived at the 11.2 billion, we'd love to work with you. Um and then I do want to uh yield my additional time to my colleague, Miss Dean. I thank you. Thanks to chairman. Uh and I thank you for being here, Mr. Patel. Uh I want to enter into the record pages 81 and 82 of your book uh which is entitled Government Gangsters.
▶ 1:59:36Uh and on 81 you said that government uh Congress should use aggressive congressional oversight uh to expose every single bit of filth and corruption in the FBI and DOJ. Interesting. I didn't hear you talking about that anymore because you have 37,000 talented folks working with you and under you. Uh you also on 82 entering into the record uh you wished that uh folks would testify publicly without time limits.
▶ 2:00:05I'm disappointed that we couldn't have done that. Uh we should have not had such time limits. And then finally I do want to enter into the record your appendix B. It is entitled members of the executive branch deep state. Uh, and uh, just pulling through a couple of them. I see listed in here dozens of people, but the Covington law firm, Mark Esper, uh, Perkins Kuey, Miles Taylor, Andrew Weissman, and so many others. I enter those into the record.
▶ 2:00:42Uh, we thank you for being with us uh we think that you're the right person for the job and we're all wishing you well and success. So, thank you for your devotion to this country uh and to the cause that you now head. Um so, uh without objection, members may have seven days to submit additional questions for the record.
▶ 2:01:13Thank you, Mr. director for being with us. The Thank you, Mr. Chairman.