‘You Have No Timeline?!’ Senator Gobsmacked by FBI Director Kash Patel Showing Up at Budget Hearing Without a Budget
During a Senate hearing to review the FBI’s FY2026 budget request, Director Kash Patel was forced to admit that, despite the law requiring it, he had no such request ready to review.
This surprising development came during an awkward back-and-forth with Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), the ranking Democrat and Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which oversees and approves budget requests.
Senator Murray reminded the FBI Director that the budget request was legally required “last week,” and after the director responded, she surprisedly added, “And your answer is you just understand you’re not going to follow the law?”
“I am following the law, and I’m working with my interagency partners to do this and get you the budget that you are required to have,” Patel explained. Then the discussion went from bad to worse, culminating in Senator Murray calling Patel’s preparation for the budget hearing, without a budget, “insufficient and deeply disturbing.”
MURRAY: And you have no timeline. Well, we also need a full budget request, not a single paragraph full of wild talking points that we saw with the skinny budget proposal. We’re now having a budget hearing without a budget request. So, Director Patel, where is the FY 2026 budget request for the FBI?
PATEL: It’s being worked on, ma’am.
MURRAY: Have you reviewed it? Have you approved it?
PATEL: But not yet.
MURRAY: When will we get it?
PATEL: As soon as I can get it from my interagency partners and get it approved.
MURRAY: Six months from now? I don’t know, ma’am, I’m not going to take that time. Well, how do we, as Congress, do our budget and our work without that request and without the spent one?
PATEL: Well, ma’am, I’m here. I’m doing the best I can. I can’t make up answers. I’m going to commit to you to work on getting you the information you need.
MURRAY: That is insufficient and deeply disturbing. No response.
PATEL: I’ve given my response.
During a House hearing on the FBI budget, Patel distanced himself from the Trump administration’s plan to significantly cut it, which is likely a reason for the delay in submitting a budget.
President Donald Trump’s nomination of Patel to lead the FBI caused a raft of controversy. Patel had publicly pledged to take the agency down and turn its building into something of a “deep state” museum. His apparent lack of preparation for this fundamental hearing will give no solace to critics convinced he was not prepared for the task at hand.
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