The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has slowed or paused lines of inquiry during the second longest United States (U.S.) government shutdown, now in its thirtieth day, after the funds used to pay informants and to conduct undercover drug or gun purchases were cut off, a situation that an FBI spokesperson said is putting national security at risk.
Shutdown status and scope
The current lapse in appropriations has reached Day 30, placing it among the longest in the modern era. The FBI does not publish a granular public breakdown of its 10.7 billion dollar budget, and the precise share affected by the funding freeze is not publicly known.
Those impacts are distinct from other shutdown disruptions, such as delayed economic data and stress on assistance programs, and they fall directly on case work and this has led some urban crime experts to begin sounding the alarm.
Impact on investigations
Payments to confidential sources have stopped, and the bureau cannot authorize the controlled purchases of drugs or guns that are routine in many criminal investigations.
Operational travel has also been frozen, limiting both informant movements and the ability of employees to leave local areas to pursue targets or meet sources. With reimbursements and approvals on hold, surveillance, meetings, and undercover buys are delayed or canceled. These conditions slow active cases and complicate the management of sources who rely on timely compensation.
Travel and operational spending freeze
Payments to confidential sources have stopped, and the bureau cannot authorize the controlled purchases of drugs or guns that are routine in many criminal investigations. Operational travel has also been frozen, limiting both informant movements and the ability of employees to leave local areas to pursue targets or meet sources.
With reimbursements and approvals on hold, surveillance, meetings, and undercover buys are delayed or canceled. These conditions slow active cases and complicate the management of potentially unscrupulous sources who rely on timely compensation in exchange for cooperation and solid intel.
On the record statements
The FBI acknowledged that investigations are being affected by the shutdown. “President Trump has repeatedly called for the federal government to reopen and the FBI fully concurs with that position,” a spokesperson said.
“As Director (Kash) Patel has previously stated, this shutdown puts the FBI in an extremely difficult position of reallocating already limited resources across numerous critical law enforcement efforts … there is no doubt that those choosing to play politics with government funding are putting national security at risk.”
Retired agent Tom Simon underscored the operational cost, saying, “In a shutdown, the FBI’s eyes and ears go dark,” and, “Without funds to pay informants, the Bureau loses its most critical source of real time intelligence.”
Pay and workforce effects
Former agent Dan Brunner, who worked cases involving the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang, said the shutdown is affecting national security, criminal, and white collar investigations.
Brunner noted that keeping unpaid informants engaged requires skilled handling by experienced agents, which is more challenging following recent departures from the bureau.
Last week special agents, a small fraction of the overall workforce, received pay, but it is unclear whether those agents or other personnel will be paid again while the shutdown continues.
Brunner warned that paying one segment while others remain unpaid can produce fissures inside teams if the shutdown reaches a second or third paycheck. These factors compound the slowdown in case work already caused by frozen operational funds.
