President Obama appeared at FBI headquarters on Monday to welcome new director James Comey. Obama told FBI staffers he will fight to restore the agency’s budget constraints under sequestration.

President Obama: “I’ll keep fighting for those resources because our country asks and expects a lot from you, and we should make sure you’ve got the resources you need to do the job, especially when many of your colleagues put their lives on the line on a daily basis, all to serve and protect our fellow citizens. The least we can do is make sure you’ve got the resources for it and that your operations are not disrupted because of politics in this town.”

Comey was sworn in at a private ceremony last month. He has instructed all new agents to visit the memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the Capitol Mall, as a lesson of what he called “the dangers in becoming untethered to oversight and accountability.” King was subjected to extensive FBI surveillance and harassment in the years before his death.