WASHINGTON: FBI Director Kash Patel said Thursday that he would make the bureau’s mission “work on whatever budget we’re given,” striking a different tone from comments a day earlier in which he called for the agency to be funded at far higher levels than what the Trump administration had proposed.
The 2026 budget proposal released on Friday calls for a funding cut of about $545 million for the FBI as part of what the White House said was a desire to “reform and streamline” the bureau and reduce “non-law enforcement missions that do not align” with the priorities of President Donald Trump
Patel told lawmakers at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Wednesday that the FBI needs “more than what has been proposed” to operate as it should and that it “can’t do the mission on those 2011 budget levels.”
But on Thursday, appearing at a separate hearing of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, he took a different stance when asked by Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland about his earlier testimony that the FBI required substantially more money than what the Trump budget plan had called for.
“My view is that we agree with this budget as it stands and make it work for the operational necessity of the FBI, and as the head of the FBI, I was simply asking for more funds because I can do more with more money,” he said.
He added that he would “make the mission work on whatever budget we’re given.”
A day after saying FBI needs more resources, Patel strikes different tone to Congress on budget plan
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A day after saying FBI needs more resources, Patel strikes different tone to Congress on budget plan
US border agent shoots and wounds two people in Portland
- The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement
A US immigration agent shot and wounded a man and a woman in Portland, Oregon, authorities said on Thursday, leading local officials to call for calm given public outrage over the ICE shooting death of a Minnesota woman a day earlier.
“We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more,” Portland police chief Bob Day said in a statement.
The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
The statement said the driver, a suspected Venezuelan gang member, attempted to “weaponize” his vehicle and run over the agents. In response, DHS said, “an agent fired a defensive shot” and the driver and a passenger drove away.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the circumstances of the incident.
Portland police said that the shooting took place near a medical clinic in eastern Portland. Six minutes after arriving at the scene and determining federal agents were involved in the shooting, police were informed that two people with gunshot wounds — a man and a woman — were asking for help at a location about 2 miles (3 km) to the northeast of the medical clinic.
Police said they applied tourniquets to the man and woman, who were taken to a hospital. Their condition was unknown.
The shooting came just a day after a federal agent from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a separate agency within the Department of Homeland Security, fatally shot a 37-year-old mother of three in her car in Minneapolis.
That shooting has prompted two days of protests in Minneapolis. Officers from both ICE and Border Patrol have been deployed in cities across the United States as part of Republican President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
While the aggressive enforcement operations have been cheered by the president’s supporters, Democrats and civil rights activists have decried the posture as an unnecessary provocation.
US officials contend criminal suspects and anti-Trump activists have increasingly used their cars as weapons, though video evidence has sometimes contradicted their claims.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement his city was now grappling with violence at the hands of federal agents and that “we cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts.”
He called on ICE to halt all its operations in the city until an investigation can be completed.
“Federal militarization undermines effective, community-based public safety, and it runs counter to the values that define our region,” Wilson said. “I will use every legal and legislative tool available to protect our residents’ civil and human rights.”
