WATCH: Patel explains why FBI no longer considers bestiality an automatic hiring disqualifier

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., confronted FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday over changes in the agency's hiring qualifications, particularly as they relate to bestiality, in an oversight hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Historically, the FBI categorically banned people who had engaged in prostitution or bestiality from being hired.

Patel said the change allows applications from people who have been victims of these crimes to be considered. Before the shift, Patel said, people who were "on either side" of crimes including "prostitution, bestiality and trafficking" were "automatically disqualified."

"Whose side of what, the bestiality?" Kennedy asked. "So you disqualified the animal?"

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Kennedy went on to press Patel's reasoning for making the change, saying the agency is "having a tough time attracting agents."

"Why would you even get into bestiality?" Kennedy asked. He added: "If Joe participated in bestiality, not as the animal, but as the human, don't you think he ought to be disqualified?"

"If he voluntarily did it, sure," Patel said, adding that in some cases human traffickers force people into "degrading acts of all kinds" including bestiality.

Patel was testifying in an oversight hearing on the nation's lead law enforcement agency, which has recently touted a drop in crime nationwide.