The federal government shuts down in 14 days. Congress is struggling to avoid a funding lapse. And now, in the wake of a second attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, Capitol Hill is being forced to reckon with a Secret Service that says it’s underfunded, understaffed and unprepared to fully carry out its dignitary protective duties.
In private meetings with lawmakers and aides, the Secret Service has been making the case that it desperately needs more than the $3 billion Congress sent it in FY2024. There’s disagreement among lawmakers at the moment as to whether the Secret Service needs more money or simply new leadership.
Trump added fuel to the fire Monday evening. During a session on X, the Republican presidential nominee said “We do need more people on my detail.”
These concerns — that the Secret Service needs more assistance — had surfaced even before the most recent threat on Trump’s life.
During a briefing last week, acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe emphasized to members of the House’s bipartisan task force investigating the July 13 Trump shooting that the budget is strained and staffing levels remain a huge issue for the agency, according to multiple sources familiar with the presentation.
Lawmakers responded to Rowe that the bipartisan task force briefing — part of which was classified and took place in a secure setting — was neither the place nor the correct committee to make a pitch for more resources.
A similar message was delivered to key congressional aides during informal briefings Monday. Secret Secret officials told staff that the agency is going to need more personnel in order to keep Trump safe between now and November, especially given the increasingly complex threat environment.
Committee aides added that since the July 13 shooting in Butler, Pa., Secret Service officials have dramatically increased their communication with Congress.
Rowe said in a Sept. 5 letter to the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security that the agency needs more funding, though he added that inadequate resources were not the cause of the security failures in July.
“Success, we have to have it every day. We cannot have failures,” Rowe said at a news conference Monday. “And in order to do that, we’re going to have some hard conversations with Congress.”
The pleas for more Secret Service resources come as Congress is still devising a stop-gap plan to fund the federal government. Top lawmakers — including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-Maine) — have said they may need to add a Secret Service funding boost to the CR if the Department of Homeland Security requests it.
In fact, the politics of rejecting a DHS request for more Secret Service funding may not be palatable for Congress.
“If the Secret Service substantiates the need, I cannot imagine Congress not meeting that request,” Collins told us. “There are a lot of demands on the Secret Service, particularly in an election year when President Trump will be all over the country.”
But like most things on Capitol Hill, it may not be that simple. While there are growing bipartisan calls to step up security protocols for Trump, some lawmakers are skeptical that throwing more money at the troubled agency will solve what they see as deep operational and institutional problems in the organization’s leadership. Some Republicans are instead pushing to just have existing resources shifted toward protecting Trump — at the same level that President Joe Biden gets.
“The Secret Service had a significant plus-up in funding. They need to give Donald Trump the same level of protection he had when he was president,” said Senate Republican Conference Chair John Barrasso.
It’s not just Republicans who want the Secret Service to be more forthcoming with Congress. Democrats also are frustrated with the agency. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said the Secret Service and DHS overall have been “deeply disappointing, and, in fact almost derelict in its duty, by resisting our requests for documents, evidence and information that are necessary to our investigation.”
The bipartisan anger at the Secret Service suggests that a funding boost or new authorities could be a heavy lift as part of the CR. Lawmakers are already warning that they could end up stumbling into a shutdown as a result.
“I am very worried,” Collins said. “I don’t think anybody wants a shutdown. But we could slide into a shutdown if we don’t get the work done.”
Task force latest: The bipartisan House task force has already taken initial steps to expand its probe into the latest attempted attack at Trump’s Florida golf course.
The expectation is that the House will also need to vote on new language to formally expand the scope of the task force’s jurisdiction, which was outlined in the initial resolution establishing the panel. But those conversations are ongoing.
So far, lawmakers have requested a briefing from the Secret Service about the West Palm Beach, Fla., incident. The agency has responded to members with a plan to schedule a briefing this week.
Their first public hearing is still scheduled to take place next week, as we previously reported, but a date hasn’t yet been finalized. The Secret Service will brief the task force today on the department’s radio communications protocols.
— Melanie Zanona, Jake Sherman, Andrew Desiderio and Mica Soellner
