U.S. lawmakers are split over Secret Service funding after two assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump in two months.
Democratic and Republican leaders are battling over funding for the Secret Service after a gunman attempted to assassinate Trump on Sunday at his golf course in Palm Beach, Florida.
No injuries were reported at the shooting, but it was the second attempted assassination targeting the former president since July, when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, clipping Trump in his right ear.
One crowd member was killed at the shooting while two were injured. Crooks was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
Following the shooting, the Secret Service faced scrutiny for failing to protect Trump from the shooter, who fired at the Republican presidential nominee from the roof of a building less than 200 yards from the podium where he was speaking to supporters.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle admitted in testimony to Congress at the time that the assassination attempt against Trump was “the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.” She later resigned from her role.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump on September 13, 2024, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Leaders of the two major parties are split over how to protect Trump after two assassination attempts.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Following the second attempt on Trump’s life, President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer want to boost the Secret Service’s budget. An exact figure has not been provided.
“We all must do our part to ensure an incident like this does not happen again,” Schumer said on the Senate floor on Monday. “This means that Congress has a responsibility to ensure the Secret Service and all law enforcement have the resources they need to do their jobs. So as we continue the appropriations process, if the Secret Service is in need of more resources, we are prepared to provide it for them, possibly in the upcoming funding agreement,” he said.
President Biden told reporters on Monday that the Secret Service “needs more help.”
“I think Congress should respond to their needs, if they, in fact, need more Service people,” he said.
The solutions proposed include attaching emergency funding for the Secret Service to a short-term funding bill that Congress must pass by September 30 to avert a government shutdown, as well as allowing the Secret Service to shift resources and spend more money to guard protectees in the final stretch of the 2024 campaign.
But Republicans have already poured cold water on the idea of more funding, with House Speaker Mike Johnson telling Fox News on Monday: “I don’t think it’s a funding issue.”
“President Trump needs the most coverage of anyone,” he added. “He’s the most attacked. He’s the most threatened, even probably more than when he was in the Oval Office. So we are demanding in the House that he have every asset available, and we will make more available if necessary. I don’t think it’s a funding issue. I think it’s a manpower allocation.”
Senator John Cornyn, who is running to be GOP leader agreed, telling reporters: “I don’t know that it’s a money issue.”
Senator Ron Johnson, a member of the Homeland Security Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Secret Service, was also of the view that the Secret Service does not need any more money.
“That’s always the solution, isn’t it? Got a problem, federal government spends more money. Well, we’re $35 trillion in debt,” said Johnson, a close Trump ally.
He added that Trump’s outdoor rallies put more strain on resources “but there are plenty of people in federal law enforcement that you could transfer over, train rapidly, and they can do the job.”
Meanwhile, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), Congressman Tim Burchett wrote: “The Secret Service has over 6000 employees and a budget of $3 Billion. They have a culture problem not a funding problem.”
Meanwhile, GOP Senator Susan Collins, the vice chair and ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee, which handles funding legislation, said Monday that Congress is open to increasing funding. However, she referenced a letter from Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe, sent to top appropriators on September 5, in which he stated that the security breach during the July 13 Trump assassination attempt was not due to insufficient resources.
“[T]he letter goes on to say that, nevertheless, they do need more funding in certain areas. So, I’m sure the subcommittee’s going to look closely at that,” Collins said, referring to the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees Homeland Security matters. “Nobody’s going to want to deny the Secret Service the funding that it needs as long as it justifies it.”
“The Republican nominee has already been shot once. Wake up, we’re leaking oil here,” Senator Tommy Tuberville said.
Congress allocated $3.1 billion to the Secret Service for the 2024 fiscal year, an increase of $265.6 million over the 2023 budget and a significant jump from the $1.8 billion provided a decade ago.
