Sequestration would affect FBI 'for many years,' says Mueller

Approximately 60 percent of the FBI's $8 billion budget is now dedicated to national security programs, FBI Director Robert Mueller told a March 15 Senate panel.

The FBI fiscal 2013 budget request is for $8.15 billion, a .53 percent real decrease from the $8.04 billion enacted for the current year, when taking into account Office of Management and Budget-projected inflation levels.

Mueller told the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on commerce, justice and science that before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, about 20 to 25 percent of the FBI budget was for a national security program. Most of that, he added, went to counter-intelligence. 

Were the FBI to undergo sequestration--the federal government is set to undergo an automatic, across-the-board cut of about 9 percent in non-entitlement program appropriations in the coming fiscal year, unless Congress modifies the Budget Control Act of 2011--the bureau's budget would likely be cut in a range between $650 million and $800 million, Mueller said.

"That would translate into a 25 workday furlough across the bureau," he said. The bureau would rotate the furloughs to lessen the impact, but "the impact of that sequestration would be felt for many years in the future," he added.

For more:
- watch the hearing on CSPAN online 
- read Mueller's prepared statement
- download the FBI fiscal 2013 budget proposal

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