FBI Director Christopher A. Wray told lawmakers on a House Appropriations subcommittee Thursday that cuts to the agency’s 2024 budget would seriously harm the bureau’s efforts against international espionage and violent criminals, including meddling by China.
The House narrowly passed a 22% reduction in funding for the bureau on Wednesday. Mr. Wray told lawmakers that decreasing the budget would mean “hundreds more predators on the loose and hundreds more kids left at their mercy.”
“A 22% reduction would be scores of threats from China left unaddressed, and I can assure you the Chinese government is not dialing back,” Mr. Wray told lawmakers.
But Republican lawmakers wanted assurances that the bureau had not become a politicized bureaucracy intent upon targeting Americans based on their political beliefs. Subcommittee Chairman Hal Rogers, Kentucky Republican, said the FBI is facing numerous challenges, including “the erosion of public trust in the bureau.”
“Perhaps unfairly, faith in the FBI seems to be at an all-time low,” Mr. Rogers told Mr. Wray. “Like it or not, many believe the FBI sometimes employs unnecessarily aggressive tactics, doesn’t hold itself to the same standards it holds the subjects of its investigations, or targets one side of the political spectrum more than the other.”
The lawmaker said he doesn’t doubt “that 99% or more of your agents go to work each day to do exactly what the American public wants them to do: defend the U.S. against terrorists and espionage, help get deadly fentanyl off our streets, rescue child victims, protect the elderly from vicious phone scams, and more.”
“Americans need the FBI to remain focused on its mission and do all it can to stay above the political fray,” Mr. Rogers said.
Mr. Wray defended the FBI’s operations, saying “there are no political appointees in the FBI, everybody in the FBI as a career civil servant, unless you count me and I’ve been nominated nominee.”
“I think I’ve turned over the entire leadership team, since I joined the FBI. I’ve put in place all kinds of new policies, procedures, trainings, systems, enhancements,” he said. “We’re going to follow the facts wherever they lead, no matter who likes it, and, in individual cases, individual investigations, we could engage on those,” he said.
Republicans have promised to scrutinize the FBI’s budget since taking control of the House after years of fighting with the bureau over its handling of its investigation into former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, his administration, his reelection campaign, and more recently, American school parents and Catholics.
Mr. Rogers told the director, “With federal debt surpassing $31 trillion, it is imperative that this committee ensure that every dollar provided to the agencies is spent efficiently and appropriately.”
Democrats, who have faced criticism by Republicans for their left flank’s support of defunding local police, have accused Republicans of “defunding” law enforcement as a result of the proposed cuts passed by the House along party lines.
Mr. Wray also faced scrutiny over the bureau’s use of warrantless surveillance of American citizens through its spying on foreign nationals.
“It’s a very important tool for us, against the Russians, against the Iranians, and other dangerous foreign adversaries. As to the reforms. I have put in place a whole slew of reforms, especially on 702, over the last 18 months or so,” he said.
However, Rep. Mike Garcia, California Republican who also sits on the intelligence panel, warned Mr. Wray that there are not enough votes in the House to reauthorize the expiring Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the FBI must take specific accountability measures before Congress reauthorizes it.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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