The frustration over the second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump is bipartisan, but less so is how to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Shelling out more money for the Secret Service in forthcoming spending bills is likely to face resistance among an array of congressional Republicans, who say the more than $3 billion agency needs to simply shift resources to the GOP presidential nominee rather than necessarily hire more agents.
“They got plenty of personnel, they’ve got plenty of money,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) said. “They need to prioritize where to be placing these Secret Service agents. They’ve got the people to do it.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) laid out the security challenges he’s seen firsthand when playing golf with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s South Florida resort where authorities say Ryan Wesley Routh lurked in bushes along the perimeter with an AK-style rifle until Secret Service opened fire.
Still, the college football coach-turned-senator emphasized his preference to reallocate resources to Trump’s detail at an agency with some 3,600 special agents and 1,600 Uniformed Division officers.
“It’s just almost impossible to protect, 100%, a guy like Donald Trump, who’s going to go outside, who’s going to do rallies, who’s going to play golf, who’s going to raise money, who’s going to shake hands,” Tuberville said. “There has to be more [agents]. More is better.”
Republicans have called on the Secret Service to deploy the equivalent number of agents to protect Trump as there are for Biden, but it’s unclear whether the agency is under any budgetary restraints. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Tuesday that Trump’s Secret Service protection is now “quite approximate” to that of President Joe Biden’s detail.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe suggested they could use additional funds, telling reporters Monday that the agency has “immediate needs” and that discussions with lawmakers were ongoing.
“We have immediate needs right now, and we have great support, not only from President Biden … we’re having fantastic conversations with members of Congress,” Rowe said. “I’ve been up to the Hill last week. We are continuing to have those conversations.”
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-WA) revealed Tuesday that the Biden administration requested “fast-forwarding” of Secret Service funding in a stopgap spending bill that must be passed by Oct. 1 to avert a government shutdown. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he was “very open” to it, and Biden has said the agency “needs more help” from Congress.
But Schumer was unsure whether they could accomplish more funding in the coming weeks or whether it’d have to wait a few months for a full-year budget.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was also open to more funding. But his chief deputy, Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD), suggested the solution may be more complicated.
“I want to make sure that that’s the issue, that it’s not decisions that are made at the C-suite level in terms of allocation of resources and manpower,” Thune said. “That’s why we need the full answers to the questions and the full investigation.”
In the House, there appeared to be additional skepticism among GOP leaders that money was the answer.
“I think it’s a matter of manpower allocation. We don’t want to just throw more money at a broken system,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said. “We’re looking at all aspects of it, and we’ll make the right determination.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) cited Congress appropriating more money each year than the amount Secret Service requests as evidence of a deeper problem.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“If you look at their budget, since 2017 we have increased their budget over their own request every single year,” Scalise said. “So clearly, they got more money. It’s about allocation.”
House Republicans plan to push legislation requiring presidential nominees receive the same protection as sitting presidents. It would not change Secret Service’s funding levels.
Cami Mondeaux contributed to this report.
