Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle spent more than three hours upbraiding Secret Service Director Julia Pierson for a security breach and for failing to fix what they described as a dysfunctional agency culture.
Despite Pierson’s appointment to head the agency in 2013 to reform it, the Secret Service has continued to experience a number of incidents of bad agent behavior going public and a security breach 11 days ago that allowed a troubled Iraq vet to scale the fence and enter the White House through an unlocked front door and make it to the East Room before being detained.
One after another, lawmakers expressed outrage and disbelief over the Sept. 19 breach, along with another incident involving the Secret Service’s botched response to a shooter who fired off seven shots that hit the White House’s upper residence in 2011.
“The White House is supposed to be one of America’s most secure facilities, and in fact, one of the world’s most secure facilities. So how on earth did it happen?” asked Rep. Darrell Issa, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that held the hearing.
In her opening statement, Pierson said she “takes full responsibility” for the failure to prevent the White House intruder from entering the building and said Secret Service agents did not follow security protocols that day. She said the breach is unacceptable and “will never happen again.”
“It is clear that our security plan was not executed properly,” she told lawmakers at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing Tuesday.
“I take full responsibility. What happened is unacceptable and it will never happen again.”
Pierson’s statement did nothing to diminish the anger of lawmakers who demanded to know why the agency did not immediately shoot Omar Gonzales, the man accused of the breach, or release dogs trained to take out trespassers.
Republicans and Democrats also pressed Pierson for a reason behind the Secret Service’s press release after the incident that praised the agents involved for showing “tremendous restraint.”
“Tremendous restraint is not what we’re looking for,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. “Tremendous restraint is not the goal and the objective. It sends a very mixed message.The message should be overwhelming force.”
How would Secret Service officers know if an intruder has an improvised explosive device or a dirty bomb or whether they are a terrorist, he asked.
Pierson said she approved the press release and stands by the claim that the officers at the White House that day showed “restraint” even though she acknowledged that security protocols weren’t followed.
“The law requires that law enforcement officers ensure that they are in imminent danger or others are in imminent danger before they can leverage lethal force,” she said.
Most of Pierson’s answers didn’t satisfy the lawmakers. At one point, Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., was so underwhelmed by her responses, he accused her of trying to cover up for the agent’s series of mistakes.
“I wish to God you protected the president like you protect your reputation,” he said.
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., just a few moments later said he didn’t detect from Pierson “a sense of outrage … a sense of mission that you want to reform and correct this cascading set of mistakes that led to, potentially, a catastrophe for the United States.”
Pierson assured him that she is indeed dedicated to doing everything in her power to fix the security lapses and has already made it clear she has a “zero tolerance” policy for bad behavior and had set up an Office of Integrity to deal with disciplinary problems.
“I have spent a career in the United States Secret Service protecting presidents, their families and the White House complex in addition to our other missions,” she said. “There is nothing more sacred to any Secret Service agent, uniformed division officer or administrative technical professional employee than our responsibility for mission success.”
At times during the hearing, Pierson described the Secret Service as suffering from budgetary constraints that left them hundreds of officers short of an ideal level and cut into resources for training and education.
Chaffetz said special agent basic training classes have decreased from eight in 2009 to five in 2011 and then no classes in 2012 and 2013.
The agency, Pierson said, has reduced its staffing as a result of sequestration and other fiscal constraints and is close to 550 employees “below our optimal level.”
Several Republicans disputed suggestions that the budget sequester had anything to do with the problems the Security Service is facing or the Sept. 19 breach.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said the Secret Service budget request for last year asked for a reduction of staff by “376 full-time equivalents.”
“Why would you do that if you’re already short 500?” he said. “I’m confused. Wouldn’t you be confused?”
Pierson said she provided Congress a “human capital strategy” at its request. She also stood by her claim that budgetary constraints are making the Service Service’s job much more difficult.
“I do see the difficulty in trying to operate a critical federal agency in times of fiscal constraint,” she said.
