FBI Director Christopher Wray testified to the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 25. He went over the 2023 FBI budget, as well as domestic and international security threats.
“Today, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee about the Bureau’s FY23 budget request and the current national security and criminal threat landscapes," the FBI said in a post to its official Twitter account on May 25.
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, Christopher Wray, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, testified in a Senate budget hearing on May 25th, 2022, to go over a “brief overview of the President’s FY 2023 budget request for the FBI, and then follow with a short discussion of key threats and challenges that we face, both as a nation and as an organization.”
Christopher Wray said that the FBI 2023 Fiscal Budget adds up to $10.8 billion. The budget utilizes $10.7 billion to pay Salaries and Expenses, $61.9 million for Construction, and $324.6 million for program enhancements—such as cyber investigation, mass violence investigation, foreign intelligence threat mitigation, crime prevention, civil rights investigation, surveillance, infrastructure, and the growth of federal jurisdiction. The 2023 budget request is $527.8 million greater than the 2022 budget.
Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire Senator and Chair of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science, made sure to open the hearings by thanking FBI employees. Kansas Senator Jerry Moran hoped that the FBI's resources would be utilized to investigate the causes of domestic terrorism. Senator Moran believes that the higher funding request from the FBI for the year is due to the increase in violence across the United States in the same time frame, according to a report from PBS.
Moran and the FBI are also concerned about the activities of "lone wolf" terrorists, who can be difficult for law enforcement to trace due to their isolated natures, according to a report from PBS.
