PORTLAND (AP) — The FBI’s Boston chief has a lot to worry about between terrorism, conventional crime and intelligence gathering. But these days, one of his biggest concerns is his budget.
Vincent Lisi, special agent in charge for Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, told reporters in Portland on Monday that one of his biggest challenges is dealing with the mandatory budget cuts known as sequestration. He said the cuts amount to $700 million of the national FBI budget this year.
He said vacant positions aren’t being filled and training has been slashed. He said it could be a few years before any new field agents are hired.
Instead of doing “more with less,” the FBI is performing threat assessments and prioritizing its most important duties as it becomes accustomed to doing “less with less,” Lisi said.
“It’s doing less with less,” he said. “You can’t keep doing more with less. Otherwise, you’ll end up being a mile wide and an inch deep.”
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