JASON CHAFFETZ: A decade of Secret Service failure proves the agency is still in crisis

The United States Secret Service (USSS) was described arsenic "an bureau successful crisis" mode backmost successful 2015, according to a broad legislature report. Ten years later, it inactive is. Despite idiosyncratic acts of heroism during repeated assassination attempts against President Trump, the bureau has not fixed what is broken. We support seeing the aforesaid mistakes repeated. Thus far, we person been lucky, but we tin nary longer trust solely connected luck.

The House Oversight Committee’s exhaustive 450-page report, released successful December 2015, followed an in-depth bipartisan investigation. We reviewed much than 100 information incidents. The problems and challenges we highlighted stay the aforesaid today.

The bureau has a dual ngo with small overlap that needs to beryllium split. Most radical don’t recognize the bulk of USSS unit enactment connected fiscal crimes and currency integrity. Government idiosyncratic surveys routinely amusement the USSS has 1 of the lowest levels of morale successful each of government. Staffing levels, training, workload and different factors are each contributing to that problem.

But astir importantly, accountability is virtually non-existent.

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The president’s protective item whitethorn beryllium the astir disposable mission, but the Secret Service is besides liable for investigating fiscal crimes. Currency and fiscal crimes should spell backmost to wherever they should person ever been — the Treasury Department. The protective item needs to enactment focused astatine Homeland Security.

In addition, the bureau is stretched excessively thin. Staffing shortages are persistent and critical, forcing the bureau to trust connected overtime. The countersniper squad unsocial is staffed astatine 73% beneath the level needed to conscionable ngo requirements, according to a 2025 Inspector General report.

A staffing shortfall was blamed successful portion for the inadequate sum of President Trump astatine the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally wherever helium was shot. But the bureau has struggled to prosecute and bid capable radical amid precocious turnover rates for the past decade. Between the agelong onboarding process and precocious turnover, staffing has been a perpetual challenge.

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The Secret Service besides has a grooming problem. Most radical don’t cognize astir FLETC — the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center — wherever caller recruits, hires and astir national instrumentality enforcement officers are trained. Our study recovered astir Secret Service agents, aft archetypal grooming and qualifications, lone get 30 minutes of grooming a year. Yes, 30 minutes per twelvemonth connected average. It’s intelligibly not enough.

President Donald Trump speaks during a property briefing successful the Brady Briefing Room astatine the White House successful Washington, D.C., connected April 25, 2026, pursuing a shooting incidental astatine the White House Correspondents Association Dinner. (Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images)

Between the assassination attempts and upcoming information needs astatine the World Cup, visiting heads of state, the America 250 celebrations, the midterm elections and the upcoming statesmanlike election, adjacent the Democrats indispensable admit we person to prioritize much grooming for our national instrumentality enforcement agencies. Instead, FLETC has been sidelined by legislature Democrats intent connected keeping the Department of Homeland Security unopen down.

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Most disappointing to maine is the agency’s deficiency of accountability. A president was changeable successful Butler, Pennsylvania, during a statesmanlike campaign. Nobody was fired. No 1 was dismissed. In fact, astir were promoted. Protection was evidently inadequate, and the extraction of the president aft helium was changeable was an embarrassment, arsenic it was astatine the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

This astir caller incidental exposed galore flaws. The highly mediocre extraction, the insufficient screening and the inadequate information astatine the tract bespeak determination is overmuch much enactment to do, to authorities the obvious.

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Yet Democrats, who besides request USSS protection, are inactive playing axenic governmental games and refusing to money Homeland Security erstwhile the bureau desperately needs it most. It’s clip for the Democrats to support America and halt utilizing ICE arsenic a governmental football.

The persistent inability to code these issues implicit a 10-year timeline suggests the solution whitethorn request to beryllium structural. Focus determines reality. 

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It’s clip to interruption up the Secret Service and let it to absorption exclusively connected 1 objective: protection. For fiscal crimes and the integrity of our currency, enactment that backmost astatine Treasury.

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