Trump’s proposed $10 billion operating budget for fiscal 2026 for the FBI “quite literally would defund law enforcement,” DeLauro said.

Patel replied that he was in talks with the Office of Management and Budget about raising the proposed figure. Patel is aiming for Congress to approve more than $11 billion for the FBI.

“We have not looked at [what jobs] to cut. We are focusing our energies on how not to have them cut by coming here and highlighting to you that we can’t do the mission on those 2011 budget levels,” Patel said.

DeLauro appeared frustrated with Trump’s broader “skinny” budget proposal, which the president offered to Congress on Friday. His plan slashes spending across the executive branch by $163 billion, though an OMB aide told reporters that proposal was aspirational and likely would not be the final budget outcome.

Patel was one of numerous top officials who appeared before congressional appropriators this week to defend Trump’s steep spending cuts and actions by his Department of Government Efficiency.

“This is your budget,” DeLauro told Patel. “You have to have some idea of what you want to fund or not fund.”

Patel reiterated that he was not interested in making any funding or job cuts at the FBI and that he did not plan to fire anyone unless they “violate ethical guidelines or break the law.”

Asked about the controversial job threat to the thousands of FBI employees who worked on Jan. 6 riot cases during the last four years, Patel indicated that he did not make that threat and that he could not speak on the subject because litigation involving a list of the employees involved was pending. Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove issued the memo about the possibility of the personnel action in January, before Patel’s confirmation.

Patel also addressed plans he once touted to dissolve the FBI’s presence in Washington, D.C.

Prior to becoming director, he said he envisioned making the J. Edgar Hoover Building, the FBI headquarters, a museum of the “deep state,” a plan that he walked back during his confirmation hearing. Once he took office, the Wall Street Journal reported that Patel instead ordered 1,500 Washington-based employees to disperse to field offices across the country without a plan to pay for their moves. About 11,000 employees work in Washington and the surrounding area.

TRUMP’S CABINET TO FACE DOGE SCRUTINY IN FLURRY OF BUDGET HEARINGS

“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, and many of those individuals took that opportunity and have requested to be redeployed into the field, into every one of your states across this country,” Patel told the panel of lawmakers on Wednesday. “We are moving more than a thousand positions outside of the Washington, D.C., area.”

He added, “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 the field.”