Congress Scrambles to Ensure Safety    09/20 06:14

   Lawmakers are scrambling to ensure that the U.S. Secret Service has enough 
money and resources to keep the nation's presidential candidates safe amid 
repeated threats of violence. It's unclear, though, how much they can do with 
only weeks before the election, or if additional dollars would make an 
immediate difference.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lawmakers are scrambling to ensure that the U.S. Secret 
Service has enough money and resources to keep the nation's presidential 
candidates safe amid repeated threats of violence. It's unclear, though, how 
much they can do with only weeks before the election, or if additional dollars 
would make an immediate difference.

   The efforts come after an assassination attempt on former President Donald 
Trump at a rally in July, and after Secret Service agents arrested a man with a 
rifle hiding on the golf course at Trump's Florida club over the weekend. The 
suspect in Florida apparently also sought to assassinate the GOP presidential 
nominee.

   Democrats and Republicans have been in talks with the agency this week to 
find out whether additional resources are needed. And the House on Friday is 
voting on legislation that would require the agency to use the same standards 
for assigning agents to major presidential and vice presidential candidates as 
they do for sitting presidents and vice presidents.

   "Luck cannot be a strategy by the Secret Service to have stopped these 
attempts," said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., who himself was 
shot in 2017 while at a baseball practice with colleagues. "The Secret Service 
has to do better."

   With the election rapidly approaching and Congress headed out of town before 
October, lawmakers are rushing to figure out exactly what might help, hoping to 
assess the agency's most pressing needs while ensuring that they are doing 
everything they can in an era where political violence has become more 
commonplace and every politician is a target.

   "We have a responsibility here in Congress to get down to the bottom of this 
to figure out why these things are happening and what we can do about it," 
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday. "This is not a partisan issue. We have 
both parties working on it."

   House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Thursday that "we've got to get 
the Secret Service into a position where its protectees are shielded in the 
most maximum way possible."

   After the July shooting, House Republicans created a bipartisan task force 
focused on investigating the security failures of that day and ensuring it 
doesn't happen again. Johnson said this week that the task force would expand 
its scope to include what happened in Florida, even though the Secret Service 
successfully apprehended the suspect before anyone was hurt. The House could 
vote soon on expanding the panel's mandate.

   In a letter earlier this month, the Secret Service told lawmakers that a 
funding shortfall was not the reason for lapses in Trump's security when when a 
gunman climbed onto an unsecured roof on July 13 at a rally in Butler, 
Pennsylvania, and opened fire. But Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe 
Jr. said this week that the agency had "immediate needs" and that he's talking 
to Congress.

   Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the Democratic chairman of the spending 
subcommittee that oversees the Secret Service, said Congress wants to make sure 
that if it is spending new dollars, "it's going to help the situation between 
now and the inauguration."

   Murphy said new money could go toward technology like drones, partnerships 
with other agencies that could provide immediate assistance and overtime pay 
for agents. It would likely be added to a stopgap spending bill that Congress 
will consider next week to keep the government running, either in the form of 
allowing the Secret Service to spend money more quickly or providing them with 
emergency dollars.

   "I'm confident we are going to take care of this one way or the other," 
Murphy said.

   The agency says it's doing what it can. Secret Service officials have told 
lawmakers behind closed doors that they have already increased Trump's security 
to the same level as Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden.

   "There are a handful of specialized assets only the commander in chief gets, 
but the rest of his protection is at the same level," Spencer Love, a 
Democratic spokesperson for the House task force, said after the agency briefed 
members on Wednesday.

   That could render the GOP House legislation unnecessary, at least for now. 
But lawmakers have said they want to make sure that Trump is protected after 
two people have tried to end his life.

   "I encourage every single one of my colleagues, regardless of their 
political views, regardless of whether they like or dislike one of the 
candidates, to recognize the fundamental fact that we have a responsibility to 
ensure their safety and well-being, and let the American people decide who will 
be president, not an assassin and not an assassin's bullet," said Republican 
Rep. Mike Lawler, one of the sponsors of the bill that the House will vote on 
Friday.

   In the Senate, Florida Sen. Rick Scott has also introduced a bill mandating 
similar protection for presidential candidates. Both bills would also require 
regular reports to Congress on the status of the candidates' protection.

   Republicans have argued that an overhaul of the agency, and potentially 
reallocating agents, should be a higher priority than funding.

   Scalise noted this week that the Secret Service has received regular budget 
increases in recent years.

   "It's not about the money," Scalise said, but "what they're doing with the 
money."

   Rep. Mike Waltz, a Republican on the task force, said he pushed Secret 
Service officials Wednesday on what new resources they needed and they said 
they were still evaluating.

   "I think it's irresponsible to just throw money at it when they're not even 
sure what exactly they need and how quickly they can get it," the Florida 
lawmaker said, adding that he hopes the agency shifts to a more threat-focused 
approach to protecting officials and candidates.

   It's unclear, though, if Republicans would fight a funding boost.

   "It's been made implicitly clear that they're stretched pretty thin," said 
Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey, a member of the task force. "I know that there's 
some folks who see a $3 billion budget and think that should be enough. But 
when you look at where all of the bodies have to go, that's a problem."