Ranking Member DeLauro Remarks at Fiscal Year 2026 Federal Bureau of Investigation Budget Hearing

WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks at the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee’s fiscal year 2026 budget hearing for the Federal Bureau of Investigation:

Thank you, Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Meng, for holding this important budget hearing.

I also want to say a thank our witness, Director Kash Patel, for appearing before the subcommittee today. Welcome back to the House of Representatives.

A well-functioning, well-funded, well-led Federal Bureau of Investigation is critical to the safety and security of the American people. The men and women of the F.B.I. are dedicated public servants who work diligently and often in dangerous settings to keep criminals off of our streets. But unfortunately, the Bureau’s 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. 

Instead, 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, and the American people are paying the costs while the President embarks on an agenda of revenge, retaliation, and retribution—and he is attempting to wield the F.B.I. to those ends.

Undue 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. 

The F.B.I. Director must shield the Bureau and the rule of law from political pressure, not act as an instrument for implementing the President’s political hitlist. President Trump’s immediate removal of senior officials at the F.B.I. 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. 

This happened the day after you told members of the United States Senate, quote, “There will be no politicization at the F.B.I. There will be no retributive actions taken by any F.B.I. should I be confirmed as F.B.I. Director.” The Administration’s retaliation against those who helped bring violent January 6 insurrectionists to justice—and the ensuing dismissal of the head of the F.B.I.'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 retributive urges, and in absentia. By instilling a culture of fear and retaliation, you are 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 F.B.I. plays a critical role in intelligence gathering and analysis. The F.B.I. does not bring just criminals to justice—it foils terror plots. With 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—I am eager to learn about how the F.B.I. 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.” 

If the Bureau plans to cut intelligence analysts—at the same time other intelligence agencies 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 F.B.I. exists to protect Americans from criminals. The American people deserve assurance that everyone will be treated equally under the law. They are not seeing that from the Trump Administration’s F.B.I. under your leadership, and we must receive clear and convincing answers as to why that is.

I yield back.

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