The Federal Bureau of Investigation is planning to lower recruitment standards for agents thanks to a push from agency director Kash Patel and deputy director Dan Bongino.
The move has raised concerns within the agency, The New York Times reports, with many agents worried that lower standards will undermine their work.
The change will eliminate requirements that recruits have college degrees and require them to undergo less training—instead of spending 18 weeks at the FBI’s Quantico academy, new agents will spend eight.
When quizzed by The Times, the FBI declined to comment.
The lowering of requirements comes as the agency prepares to lose 5000 employees next month who took severance or early retirement packages. The reduction packages were offered as part of the Trump administration’s attempt to shrink the federal workforce using the Department of Government Efficiency, headed up by Tesla billionaire Elon Musk.
As The Times notes, lower standards will allow the bureau to draw recruits from other federal law enforcement agencies, particularly criminal investigators classed as 1811s who currently work for ICE and the ATF, among other agencies.
Current and former agents who spoke to The Times characterized the change as part of a larger effort by Patel to shift the agency’s focus to street crime and away from complex cases involving fraud, corruption, and national security.
Agents expressed concerns that this shift would damage the agency’s reputation in the eyes of the public.
Former FBI agent and senior counterterrorism official Chris O’Leary said the plan was merely the latest example of “generational destruction” at the agency.
If those in charge “knew anything about leading organizations,” he told The Times, “they would know that when you lower the standards, your mission effectiveness goes down with that, because not only does the capability of each individual agent decline, but your reputation, both domestically and globally, takes a hit.”
The announcement comes on the heels of the news that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was adjusting its own recruitment standards in order to draw in a wider pool of applicants, removing existing age caps and allowing people as young as 18 to apply.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the change as “incredibly successful,” and that the agency had quickly received over 80,000 applications for 10,000 open positions.
It also comes just days after the announcement that Bongino would be sharing deputy director duties with Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey.
O’Leary also told The Times that Bongino’s apparent demotion, when combined with the decision to lower recruitment standards, only exacerbated concerns that the FBI was suffering from a lack of strong senior management and the agency may simply “do the bidding of the administration, no matter what it is.”
Initially appointed in March to be sole deputy director, Bongino drew the Trump administration’s ire last month after clashing with Attorney General Pam Bondi over the handling of the Epstein files, going so far as threatening to resign.
Both Patel and Bongino found themselves under fire from MAGA supporters for their failure to deliver on promises to release information relating to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
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