The House on Friday passed legislation to strengthen security for presidential nominees in the wake of two assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump.
The House voted 405-0 on the bill, which requires the director of the Secret Service to apply the same standards when determining the number of agents who protect the president, vice president and major-party presidential and vice presidential candidates.
The legislation, from Reps. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), was rolled out in the immediate aftermath of the July 13 shooting at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania.
But House GOP leadership decided to bring it to the floor this week after Sunday’s apparent second assassination attempt in Florida revived security concerns.
After the vote, Lawler and Torres, in a statement, thanked their House colleagues for supporting the bill and urged the Senate and President Joe Biden to get the legislation "through the finish line." "The two recent attempts on former President Trump’s life showed the world that unfortunately, the Secret Service has serious gaps in protection, and more must be done to ensure no one can take advantage of those vulnerabilities," the lawmakers said.
The Secret Service told a bipartisan House task force investigating the July 13 attempt that Biden had ordered an increase in security for Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in the wake of the Pennsylvania attack. Biden, according to lawmakers on the committee, ordered a level of Secret Service protection that would be “commensurate” with the level the president receives. That level of protection was in place on Sunday in Florida, the Secret Service told the committee.
But the House bill would change the level of security for presidential nominees going forward — not just for Harris and Trump.
The Secret Service has been at the heart of Congress’ investigations into the attacks against Trump, as lawmakers probe the agency’s security planning. The task force that is currently investigating the July 13 attack is expected to be formally expanded by the House to include Sunday’s incident in Florida.
Meanwhile, lawmakers are debating whether or not to include more Secret Service funding in a government spending bill they need to pass by month’s end in order to avoid a shutdown. Senators tasked with overseeing the agency’s funding have been in talks with the Secret Service about its resource needs in the wake of the July 13 shooting.
But there’s skepticism among Republicans in both chambers that more money is what the agency needs amid multiple ongoing investigations about the two apparent assassination attempts.
Instead of giving the agency more money on the short-term government funding bill, Congress could give the agency more spending flexibility, according to appropriators, then tackle the issue of further funding at the end of the year.
