Senators expressed openness to additional Secret Service funding on Monday following another assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
“If the Secret Service is in need of more resources, we are prepared in providing it for them, possibly in the upcoming funding agreement,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in remarks on the Senate floor.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) did not address the funding but said Trump must receive the security needed to protect him.
“The American people deserve answers,” McConnell said. “They deserve assurances that a former president, who tens of millions of Americans have nominated once again, will receive every appropriate measure of security, and they ought to receive them without delay.”
The second attempt on Trump’s life, which occurred Sunday at his West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course, has placed the Secret Service under even further scrutiny following the July shooting at a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe said Monday that the suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, “did not have a line of sight to the former president” and did not fire any shots, but authorities said he was found with a rifle hiding in the bushes.
Routh, who is now in custody, is alleged to have fled the area when an agent engaged him with gunfire.
Several Republicans questioned whether the security lapses were due to a lack of funding. Rowe told Senate appropriators earlier this month that the Butler assassination attempt was not due to insufficient resources.
But lawmakers, Republicans included, were open to the additional funds if the Secret Service deems it necessary.
“If it’s a funding issue, a resource issue, or maybe it’s just an allocation or resource issue, which is a different subject, they need to be clear-eyed about it and let us know what it is that they need,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) told the Washington Examiner.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said further Secret Service funding should be given “every consideration” but was agnostic on whether it should be considered as part of the upcoming funding bill or a separate piece of legislation.
Congress must approve a short-term measure known as a continuing resolution by Oct. 1 to avoid a shutdown.
“I’m sure that the committee will give ample consideration, whether it’s done as part of a CR or afterwards,” said Collins. “They can always shift money around.”
Over in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said that Trump “needs the most coverage of anyone.”
“He’s the most attacked. He’s the most threatened,” Johnson said on Fox News. “We are demanding, in the House, that he have every asset available. And we will make more available if necessary.”
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden told reporters Monday that the agency “needs more help” and that Congress “should respond to their needs.” The current budget of the Secret Service tops $3 billion.
Several Republicans expressed that Trump should receive the same level of protection extended to Biden. To that end, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said he intends to introduce legislation this week that would mandate the change.
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Democrats similarly called for Trump to have adequate protection but were less clear on whether that meant the sort of detail afforded to Biden.
“Everybody should get all the protection that they need,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), a member of the Appropriations Committee. “I don’t think it’s a matter of comparing politicians, and what they deserve. Everybody deserves to be 100% safe.”
