The House unanimously passed a bill on Friday enhancing former President Donald Trump’s Secret Service protection level after two assassination attempts against the Republican nominee 64 days apart.
By a 405-0 vote, lawmakers directed the Secret Service to apply uniform standards of protection “for determining the number of agents required to protect Presidents, Vice Presidents, and major Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates.”
The bill was voted under suspension of the House rules, meaning it needed two-thirds approval to pass.
The legislation also requires the Secret Service to issue a report on the effectiveness of its protection for presidents, vice presidents, former presidents and major presidential and vice presidential candidates, who are designated to be “major” protectees by the Homeland Security secretary and congressional leaders.
Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Ritchie Torres (D-NY) introduced the bill the day after Trump’s first brush with death, when would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, shot him in the ear at a Pennsylvania campaign rally on July 13.
It was brought up for a vote this week, five days after Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, set up a sniper’s nest off the 6th hole at Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach in Florida.
Ousted Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle admitted that the Pennsylvania attempt was the agency’s “most significant operational failure” in decades, but her successor took no responsibility for the thwarted second attempt.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe later told Trump, 78, that a major increase was needed in security resources and coordination if he wanted to keep playing golf.
At a Monday press conference, Rowe told reporters that Routh “did not have line of sight to the former president” and “fled the scene” after being fired upon by a Secret Service agent on advance patrol at the course.
“He did not fire or get off any shots at our agents. With reports of gunfire, the former president’s close protection detail immediately evacuated the president to a safe location,” Rowe explained. “The protective methodologies of the Secret Service were effective.”
Republicans and Democrats in Congress also called for heightened security protocols in the aftermath of Sunday’s near-tragedy, though it’s unclear whether that could only be achieved through further funding or merely by executive action from President Biden.
But former federal law enforcement officials told The Post earlier this week that more funds weren’t needed.
“The resources dedicated to his protection should be commensurate with the threats,” said ex-Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan, noting that in addition to two immediate assassination attempts, Trump had also faced a foiled assassination plot by a suspected Iranian agent.
“Trump is perhaps the most threatened person in the world, with threats from both domestic and foreign adversaries, including an Iranian assassination plot to avenge the death of Iran General [Qassem] Soleimani during Trump’s presidency,” added former Department of Homeland Security acting deputy chief of staff Lora Ries. “He should be protected to the maximum level based on that threat.”
The Senate Homeland Security Committee and a House select task force are both investigating the assassination attempts, with the former expected to issue a report on the first attempt in the coming days.
Senate committee members voted earlier this week to release all documents related to the shooting at the Butler Farm Show grounds after Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) accused the Department of Homeland Security of “stonewalling” their investigation.
House Task Force Ranking Member Jason Crow (D-Colo.) told reporters on Wednesday that “unlike the Butler situation, which very obviously had some failures, it does appear as those security processes and protocols were followed and the system worked as designed.”
“It appeared to be the same security package that was provided to former President Trump at that site, doing the activity as he actually received when he was the president,” Crow said of the Sunday golf outing. “It was commensurate with presidential-level security.”
