May 19, 2023 3:41PM 

# FBI Budget 

By [Chris Edwards](https://www.cato.org/people/chris-edwards) 

---

<a class="js-popover-trigger cursor-pointer popover-trigger" data-bs-placement="bottom" data-bs-trigger="click" id="popover-trigger"> 

SHARE 

</a> 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is in the news with the release of the [Durham report](https://www.cato.org/blog/durham-report-trumps-vindication) and this week’s [testimony](https://www.foxnews.com/media/whistleblower-willing-homeless-hands-fbi-speak-out) in the House about the agency’s politicized leadership. In response to the FBI’s recent failures, many columnists and policymakers have called for either [reforms](https://www.wsj.com/articles/let-an-fbi-agent-lead-reform-house-republicans-intelligence-culture-wray-comey-hunter-biden-clinton-11672690330?mod=article_inline), funding [cuts](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/republicans-fbi-reform-go-at-the-money), or agency [dismantling](https://www.yahoo.com/now/comer-calls-fbi-dismantled-following-143814823.html).

The FBI has an [annual budget](https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-03/fbi_fy_24_pb_bud_sum_ii_omb_cleared_3-08-23.pdf) of more than $11 billion and a workforce of 37,000 spread across headquarters, 56 field offices, 350 satellite offices, and dozens of foreign offices.

The chart shows that real FBI spending almost doubled from $5.25 billion 2000 to $10.44 billion in 2011 and has since trended slowly upwards reaching $11.4 billion in 2023.

![FBI Outlays](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/2023-05/fbi%20spending.png?itok=bgTuxriD) 

##### Related Tags 

[Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) 

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).