Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, told senators on Thursday that he backed a White House proposal to cut his agency’s budget by about half a billion dollars, an about-face a day after requesting additional money.
On Wednesday, Mr. Patel, testifying before a House appropriations panel about the Trump administration’s budget plan, said that the F.B.I. needed “more than what has been proposed.” Less than 24 hours later, he told senators the agency would “make and agree with this budget as it stands.”
The Trump administration proposal would amount to a decrease of roughly 5 percent in the F.B.I. budget.
Asked by lawmakers on Thursday to explain the apparent change of heart, Mr. Patel said that he had been “simply asking for more funds because I can do more with more money.”
Mr. Patel’s turnabout is likely to do little to assuage Republicans in Congress who were already concerned about the budget plan. His admission a day earlier signaled a rare break with the White House, and public disagreements between agencies and the administration over budget requests tend to be uncommon.
The hearings also highlighted how dysfunctional the federal budget process has become over the past decade, as Congress has repeatedly overcome short-lived crises by passing measures intended merely to keep the government open. That dynamic has made White House budget proposals increasingly irrelevant.
Last week, President Trump said he would call for cutting $545 million from the F.B.I. budget, part of a far-reaching proposal to slash federal spending by $163 billion.
On Thursday, Mr. Patel said he did not yet know the scope of what would need to be cut at his agency to meet the administration’s proposal.
A day earlier, he had put it more bluntly, saying that the size of the reduction would put the agency on a spending level last seen 14 years ago. “We can’t do the mission on those 2011 budget levels,” he said.
At Thursday’s hearing, lawmakers from both parties complained about what they called a “disjointed” budget process, which they said made it hard to get meaningful answers about how the F.B.I. would or would not spend taxpayer dollars.
In its so-called skinny budget last week, the Trump administration offered no specific breakdown of spending at the F.B.I.
Senator Jerry Moran, Republican of Kansas, defended Mr. Patel at the Thursday hearing, saying that it was “not his fault that we have a skinny budget to look at.”
Democrats became exasperated as the hearing wore on and Mr. Patel conceded he could not answer many of their questions.
Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, noted that the agency’s deadline for submitting its spending plan for the current year had passed a week ago, and that lawmakers could not draft a budget without one.
Asked by Ms. Murray when lawmakers would see the spending plan, Mr. Patel replied, “I don’t have an answer.”
“I am doing the best I can,” he added. “I can’t make up answers.”
Ms. Murray called that response “insufficient and deeply disturbing.”
Republicans were generally more welcoming of Mr. Patel, even as some appeared skeptical.
Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, pressed him on the expected release of more documents involving the financier Jeffrey Epstein, who hung himself in a federal jail while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
An earlier release of some material was met with derision by right-wing pundits and online influencers, who have long insisted that the government is covering up evidence of broader crimes committed by elites.
“When do you think you’ll have it done, Kash?” Mr. Kennedy asked.
“I think in the near future, sir,” Mr. Patel replied.
“Like before I die?” Mr. Kennedy responded tartly.
“Senator, we’ve been working on that, and we’re doing it in a way that protects victims and also doesn’t put out into the ether information that is irrelevant,” he said.
Adam Goldman contributed reporting.
Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for The Times.
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