Last week saw President Donald Trump present Congress with his 2026 budget outline, which includes significant spending cuts.

While the plan has been welcomed by many conservatives, FBI Director Kash Patel has warned that it could hinder his agency's mission.

Patel says FBI "can’t do the mission" with $545 million cut

According to the New York Post, Patel voiced that concern when testifying before the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.

Specifically, Patel took issue with a proposed $545 million funding reduction, telling Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, "At this time we have not looked at who to cut."

"We are focusing our energies on how not to have them cut, by coming in here and highlighting to you that we can’t do the mission on those 2011 budget levels," he added.

The FBI director further explained that he has been communicating with the White House Office of Management and Budget as well as congressional appropriators.

White House seeks to "reform and streamline" FBI

This is because the FBI "cannot cover down on the mission at the levels that we would have to go to" should Trump's budget proposal be accepted as it.

The Post pointed out how the White House's proposal aims to "reform and streamline" America's premier federal law enforcement agency.

"The Budget reflects the President’s priority of reducing violent crime in American cities and protecting national security by getting FBI agents into the field by cutting FBI D.C. overhead and preserving existing law enforcement officers," it states.

This includes putting "a new focus on counterintelligence and counterterrorism, while reducing non-law enforcement missions that do not align with the President’s priorities."

House Freedom Caucus endorses budget proposal

Fox News reported that the budget proposal was endorsed in a social media post put up a week ago by the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

This is how you break the Swamp. Passing MAGA Republican priorities in reconciliation with Republican votes — ending Democrats’s leverage against the President in appropriations to fund the Left’s wasteful, woke and weaponized bureaucracy.

The FY26 budget is a paradigm shift. https://t.co/wOKbZhaKLC

— House Freedom Caucus (@freedomcaucus) May 2, 2025

"This is how you break the Swamp. Passing MAGA Republican priorities in reconciliation with Republican votes — ending Democrats’s leverage against the President in appropriations to fund the Left’s wasteful, woke and weaponized bureaucracy," it declared.

Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy is a member of the House Freedom Caucus, and he spoke up in a statement of his own, writing that the proposal "re-aligns federal spending to the priorities of the people."