Congress scrambles to ensure safety of presidential candidates in final weeks of campaign

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.”