When Republicans won the House majority, some of their most conservative members pledged to use their power to slash the budgets of the federal agencies they claimed had been weaponized against them — chief among them the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
But the story of the F.B.I.
cut is not so much one of how House Republicans used their slim majority to raze the budget of an agency they claim has gone rogue.
Out of the $654 million lawmakers agreed to cut this year from the F.B.I.’s operating budget, $622 million came from eliminating what was essentially an old earmark: money for construction at the bureau’s campus at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala.
The funding was placed into the budget years ago by Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the legendary pork-barreling veteran who retired in 2022 at the age of 88.
Persons:
Mike Johnson, Richard C, Shelby
Organizations:
Republicans, Federal Bureau of, Democrats, Redstone Arsenal
Locations:
Huntsville, Ala, Alabama