As the country hurtles through a historic government shutdown, likely the longest ever by week’s end, cash reserves are not being replenished at the FBI – endangering the agency’s national security mission.
No agents are being paid across the entire bureau. Funds for investigations are now being prioritized to conserve cash.
Officials have described the dollar drain and lack of pay at the FBI as a security threat growing by the day – as the impasse continues over the situation President Donald J. Trump describes as a security and humanitarian crisis at the southern border.
But in a move to highlight the growing crisis within the FBI, the FBI Agents Association will release a petition to the White House and Congress at 11 a.m. Thursday, urging leaders in Washington to fund the bureau as soon as possible.
“There is no question, no question, that as this goes forward, the impact on the FBI is a national security issue,” said FBI Agents Association President Thomas O’Connor in an interview Wednesday.
“I’m going to have t-shirts made that say, ‘crime doesn’t pay, but neither does the federal government.’”
The petition will represent the voices of the nearly 13,000 active FBI special agents, who are likely to miss their paychecks when the partial government shutdown continues past Friday.
The shutdown extending past Friday’s federal pay period will impact 800,000 government employees, 80 percent of whom live outside the Beltway.