WASHINGTON — FBI Director James Comey said on Thursday that the US budget stalemate may force him to put agents on furlough, leaving the agency, which investigates major crimes and national security threats, potentially short-handed. Although the country's major investigative agency avoided furloughs when the first round of automatic spending cuts took effect in March, “I can't avoid it at this point,” Comey told reporters in a briefing at FBI headquarters. He said the bureau had already stopped training new agents. Speaking to major US news outlets for the first time since he was sworn in this month to a 10-year term as FBI director, Comey also defended the government's newly disclosed domestic spying programs, but predicted the US Supreme Court would ultimately decide if they are lawful. Comey, 52, was a senior Justice Department official under President George W. Bush and then worked as a lawyer for Lockheed Martin Corp and hedge fund firm Bridgewater Associates. He was named by President Barack Obama to succeed Robert Mueller, whose 12 years as FBI director made him the second longest-serving director after J. Edgar Hoover. The FBI during Mueller's final year made its budget by “looking through the couch cushions,” Comey said. With a new government fiscal year set to begin Oct. 1 and Congress not close to passing a budget, “the couch has been turned upside-down,” he said. The earlier belt-tightening was forced by automatic, across-the-board spending cuts known as the “sequester.” The Obama administration and Congress have not been able to agree on tax increases or targeted spending cuts that would preserve certain essential government functions. Comey said he was considering a furlough of 10 days or more for each of the FBI's 36,000 employees. New agent classes at a bureau compound in Quantico, Virginia, stopped within the past few months, he said. “I'm happy to have a discussion with anyone who thinks I have too many people or too many resources,” Comey said. Comey declined to name specific areas of the FBI that would be most hurt by cuts, but said he was concerned about all areas, “given what we're responsible for doing.” — Reuters
