Secret Service Head Seeks Funds To Combat Dangerous 'New Reality'

Acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe is urging Congress to invest heavily in the agency after two apparent assassination attempts against former president Trump, saying the service must confront its shortcomings and better position itself to handle a dangerous “new reality.” Rowe told the Washington Post said the guardians of presidents, former presidents and other top officials are desperate for more counter-snipers and investigators, upgraded armored limousines for motorcades, and a greater supply of ballistic glass. He said that the agency’s aging Maryland training center lacks studios to train agents for real-world attacks and that agents are working more hours in a state of hypervigilance than anyone should. “We are running our people at levels that we have not seen in our protective operations,” Rowe said. “We are burning everything hot right now.” The agency operates with a $3 billion yearly budget and more than 7,000 employees, including the elite protective details.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the Secret Service is asking Congress for a “significant” budget increase for staff, transportation and technology, though he and Rowe declined to provide numbers. The acting director’s ambitions are colliding with skeptical members of Congress who have watched with alarm as solo gunmen appear to have targeted the Republican nominee twice in 10 weeks. Rowe says, “As a result of these failures, what has become clear to me is we need a shift in paradigm in how we conduct our operations. As was demonstrated on Sunday in West Palm Beach, the threat level is evolving and requires this paradigm shift.” Rowe, a 25-year agency veteran who became acting director on July 23, is attempting to expand the service amid multiple investigations into the attempts on Trump’s life and complaints that the agency has failed to implement policy recommendations as far back as the Bush and Obama administrations. The agency has suffered multiple security lapses, including an embarrassing incident in 2014 when a man carrying a knife jumped the fence around the White House and entered through the front door. Rowe said the Secret Service is on schedule to hire 400 agents by the end of this year, but “I can’t work them to death.”