Founded in 1908, it now runs 55 field offices, the national fingerprint and DNA databases, and the crime lab at Quantico. It is both a police agency and a domestic intelligence service, a dual role Congress re-examines after every major controversy.
Open the interactive page for FBI →Created byadministratively by Attorney General order creating an investigative force, 1908 (Bureau of Investigation, 1909; renamed FBI 1935); later codified
Head appointedPub. L. 90-351, § 1101 (1968), 28 U.S.C. § 532 note: Director "appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate"; single 10-year term cap per Pub. L. 94-503, § 203 (1976), 28 U.S.C. § 532 note (one-time extension for the then-incumbent allowed by Pub. L. 112-24 (2011)) (PAS)
Removal standardno statutory protection — at will; the 10-year term is a maximum, not tenure protection (Directors removed by the President in 1993 and 2017)
Funded underCommerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act; plus fingerprint/name-check user fees credited to FBI accounts (Pub. L. 101-515, title II, Nov. 5, 1990, 104 Stat. 2112, 28 U.S.C. § 534 note)
Congressional oversightHouse Committee on the Judiciary (intelligence functions: House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence) · Senate Committee on the Judiciary (intelligence functions: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence)
Inspector generalDOJ OIG (PAS IG under IG Act, 5 U.S.C. § 403(a)); full jurisdiction over FBI since 2001-02 (AG Order 2492-2001; Pub. L. 107-273, § 308), subject to AG sensitive-matter limits, 5 U.S.C. § 413(a)
Judicial reviewAPA § 702 suits; Bivens damages actions (sharply narrowed by Egbert v. Boule); FOIA Exemption 7 plus § 552(c) record exclusions for informant and classified counterintelligence files; FISA surveillance reviewed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (50 U.S.C. § 1803)
Vote for President and Senate, who appoint and confirm the Director; file complaints with the DOJ Inspector General; ask your members of Congress to hold oversight hearings.