FBI director ticks off terror threats foiled by agents

Patel testified that foreign terrorist organizations, including ISIS, have become "all the more powerful" by moving their recruitment capabilities online.

"What we have done is extended and expanded resources to environments like the Threat Screening Center, which allows us to collect biometric capabilities from all over the world," Patel said, noting double-digit increases in those resources and the bureau's intelligence production.

"But what we've also done in the [counterterrorism] space specifically is expand the number of agents and intel analysts that go online and detect based on our biometric capabilities and intelligence that we have from the interagency," he said.

Patel testified at the Senate hearing alongside Defense Intelligence Agency Director James Adams, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Acting Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command William Hartman and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.