House moves to bolster Secret Service after assassination scares

By gqlshare on September 24, 2024

Chris Johnson | (TNS) CQ-Roll Call

WASHINGTON — House Republicans proposed a boost to Secret Service funding in the aftermath of two assassination attempts on GOP presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump in the last three months.

Acting Secret Service Director Ron Rowe has had conversations with Congress about more resources since the first attempt in July, and he told The Washington Post last week that was needed to handle the "new reality" of a highly charged political climate.

Among other things, Rowe said the agency is in desperate need of "more counter-snipers and investigators, upgraded armored limousines for motorcades and a greater supply of ballistic glass."

"We are running our people at levels that we have not seen in our protective operations," Rowe told the Post. "We are burning everything hot right now."

House leaders put $231 million in new funding in a 12-week extension of federal spending unveiled Sunday, as Congress faces a deadline of Sept. 30 to act to avoid a shutdown. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York and President Joe Biden have voiced support for additional funding for the agency.

Members of Congress have been scrutinizing the budget for the Secret Service in the aftermath of a shooting at a Trump rally in July in Butler, Pa. Those concerns were elevated after the Secret Service arrested a man in connection with an assassination attempt Sept. 15 at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Congress has already given Secret Service an increase in funds in recent years, doubling the agency's budget over the past 10 fiscal years. The annual budget for the Secret Service is now $3 billion. Senators have been split, even within their own parties, on the idea of whether the agency should receive more funding.

Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida, a Republican member of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, wrote Monday on X that greater accountability of the Secret Service should be in place before granting the agency a funding increase.

"If it's just resources that the Secret Service needs, I'll gladly hold up my own credit card to get them what they need," Waltz said. "But we need REAL accountability from the Secret Service BEFORE we talk more money."

The boost in funds would be limited to immediate needs for the 2024 campaign and is contingent upon the agency meeting lawmakers' demands for information as it conducts oversight of the agency. A separate provision would allow the Secret Service to tap into its extended funding allocation faster if needed.

The office of Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., the ranking member on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees homeland security funding, told CQ Roll Call in an email that the inclusion of non-emergency Secret Service funds in the continuing resolution could mean that there is less money for other priorities in an eventual full-year fiscal 2025 Homeland Security spending bill.

Britt "will fight any attempt by Democrats to take this $231 million from true border security and interior immigration enforcement usages," the email statement said.

Rowe previously told Senate appropriators in a July 5 letter the failure to protect Trump at the Butler rally wasn't the result of budget shortfalls.

The agency released an interim report Friday that identified the key reasons why a gunman was able to take a shot at Trump from a nearby rooftop at the Butler rally. Secret Service has signaled it will make the report final in the coming weeks.

"These deficiencies included gaps in colocation of law enforcement resources to share information, the variety of radio frequencies/channels used (again without the colocation of physical personnel to convey information), and the capability of agency personnel to clearly convey the Secret Service's protective needs," the interim report states.

Florida criminal case

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors released details Monday that suggest the man arrested in connection with an assassination attempt at Trump International had acted on a plot for months.

In a court filing that seeks to keep Ryan Routh in custody on gun charges in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, prosecutors included an image of a handwritten letter that said it was "an assassination attempt on Donald Trump."

A witness contacted law enforcement after the Trump International incident and said Routh had dropped off a box at his house several months earlier, the filing states. The witness opened it and found the letter addressed to "The World."

"This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job," the filing quotes the letter.

The letter also said that Trump "ended relations with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has unraveled," the filing states.

Law enforcement also found, in the Nissan sport utility vehicle Routh was driving, a handwritten list of venues and dates in August, September and October where Trump had appeared or was expected to be present, the filing states.

Site records for two of the cellphones found in the car showed that they were near Trump International golf course and the residence at Mar-a-Lago on multiple days and times from Aug. 18 to Sept. 15, the filing states.

The FBI also reviewed a book Routh apparently authored about Ukraine, which said that he must take part of the blame that the country elected a "brainless" president who made a terrible mistake in Iran, the filing states.

"You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment and the dismantling of the deal. No one here in the US seems to have the balls to put natural selection to work or even unnatural selection," the book states, according to the filing.

Routh faces charges of possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, according to a criminal complaint filed last week.

A Secret Service agent assigned to Trump's detail was walking the perimeter of Trump International and saw what appeared to be a rifle poking out of the tree line, the complaint states.

The agent fired a gun in the direction of the rifle at about 1:31 p.m. and agents found a loaded rifle with a scope and an obliterated and unreadable serial number, along with a digital camera, a backpack and a plastic bag with food, the complaint states.

County officers later stopped the Nissan that was seen leaving the area at a high rate of speed and asked Routh if he knew why he was being stopped, and "he responded in the affirmative," the complaint states.

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