U.S. Secret Service agents remove Donald Trump from the stage with blood on his face following an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler, Penn., on July 13. The incident prompted GAO to add increased Secret Service training to its list of priority recommendations. The Washington Post / Getty Images
GAO wants new Secret Service training plan after Trump assassination attempt
The watchdog recommended the agency implement new training goals for agents in the Presidential Protective Division after a gunman attempted to assassinate Donald Trump in July.
The Government Accountability Office has added improving training for Secret Service agents to its list of priority open recommendations for the Homeland Security Department, following the July assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
Comptroller General Gene L. Dodaro on Aug. 19 sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas highlighting which of the department’s 478 unfulfilled GAO recommendations should be prioritized for implementation.
“In light of recent events, DHS should ensure that special agents assigned to the Presidential Protective Division (PPD) and the Vice Presidential Protective Division (VPD) of the Secret Service reach annual training targets given current and planned staffing levels,” Dodaro wrote. “Developing and implementing a plan for meeting protection-related training targets would better prepare special agents to effectively respond to the security threats faced by the President and other protectees.”
A DHS panel established after an intruder in 2014 jumped a fence and entered the White House recommended that special agents protecting the president and vice president spend 25% of their work time in training.
However GAO in 2019, when it first made this recommendation, found that PPD and VPD special agents in fiscal 2018 respectively attended training for 5.9% and 2.9% of their regular work hours.
In 2021, the Secret Service set a goal for special agents assigned to the president and vice president to spend approximately 12% of their time in training, which it expected to achieve in fiscal 2025.
But in 2023, the protective agency pushed that target date to 2027 and said it would need to secure funding for additional personnel in order to increase the time available for training.
Matthew Noyes, the director of cyber policy and strategy in the Secret Service’s Office of Investigations, told the Aspen Security Forum in July that the agency had been struggling for a decade to maintain staffing levels due to governmentwide budget caps that were first implemented in 2013.
The Secret Service received $3.1 billion in fiscal 2024, a 9% increase from the previous year.
Shortly after the assassination attempt, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned following bipartisan criticism about her agency’s handling of the rally where a gunman killed one attendee, injured two others and grazed Trump’s ear. Numerous congressional committees, a bipartisan House task force, the inspector general of the Homeland Security Department and an independent review overseen by DHS are all investigating Secret Service’s actions on that day.
Other GAO recommendations on the open priorities list include that DHS and the Health and Human Services Department should address information sharing gaps to ensure that the Office of Refugee Resettlement receives necessary information to make decisions for unaccompanied migrant children and that the department should work with the FBI to evaluate existing agreements on joint initiatives to counter domestic terrorism threats.
GAO noted that DHS has implemented 16 recommendations on the priorities list since June 2023. For example, FEMA took steps to assess how effectively its disaster workforce was deployed to meet mission needs in the field and DHS improved how it processes families at the southwest border.