When funding stops, justice slows
The FBI has had to slow its investigations during the second longest government shutdown in United States history.
Many FBI investigations have been put on hold due to the shutdown, leading to National security risks and many at the Bureau unpaid.
On October 16, President Donald Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel stated that FBI special agents were still being paid despite the shutdown. “We got the people that we want paid — paid, And we want the FBI paid and we want the military paid,” Donald Trump said.
Now, much of the money the FBI needs has been cut due to the government shutdown, which has led to important investigations being halted. This causes a great setback in being able to keep people safe. “The government shutdown is affecting a lot of investigations, national security, criminal investigations, white collar, ect,” Former Agent Dan Brunner said.
The Trump administration has sought ways to continue paying some Law Enforcement agents and active-duty military, but the bureau’s operations are not fully funded. The shutdown has frozen funds for operational travel, including trips to meet a drug supplier, a boss, or another investigative subject. Some FBI employees also lack the funds to travel outside of their local areas. Informants for the FBI are losing pay as well, and managing informants who haven’t been paid requires a lot of work from experienced agents, but this is proving to be difficult as many of them have left the bureau over the past six months. “Without funds to pay informants, the Bureau loses its most critical source of real-time intelligence,” Retired FBI Agent Tom Simon said.
Last week, the FBI paid a small part of its workforce money, but it’s unclear if anyone else at the bureau will be getting paid. “It’s a problem that the agents are getting paid while everyone else is not. If this goes to a second or third paycheck, there’s going to be some serious fissures, and you can’t have that,” Brunner said.
