The House voted unanimously to increase Secret Service protections for presidential candidates, giving them the same level of security as sitting presidents while traveling on the campaign trail.
Lawmakers passed a resolution in a 405-0 vote on Friday that would enhance protections for former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris with rare, widespread bipartisan support. The legislation comes in response to the two assassination attempts against Trump during this cycle, which prompted condemnations from both sides of the aisle to crack down on political violence.
“This is not a partisan issue,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said this week. “We have a nominee for president that’s probably the most threatened political figure in history.”
Although the bill would require the Secret Service to provide increased security, it doesn’t mention allocating more funds toward the agency to achieve this. Instead, House GOP leaders have argued the agency’s recent shortcomings are not related to money but rather a result of the Secret Service “trying to carry out a woke agenda, focusing on the wrong things, and forgetting their main mission,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) said.
“If you look at their budget, since 2017, we have increased their budget over their own request every single year,” Scalise told reporters on Tuesday. “So clearly, they got more money. It’s about allocation.”
The request for increased protection comes in direct response to the second assassination attempt on Sunday, after which Johnson said he called the White House on Tuesday to “demand … President Biden supply for President Trump the same degree of protection that a sitting president has.”
President Joe Biden responded that the Secret Service needs more help, and Democrats, led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), have offered more funding immediately as part of a larger agreement to fund the government past the fiscal year that ends on Oct. 1.
The proposal also comes as Republicans have largely blamed Democrats for the attempts on Trump’s life, arguing the party’s rhetoric against the former president has incited violence ahead of the November election.
“I want to point out Democrats violent statements have fueled this,” House GOP Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said. “You should call the Democrats out in the media for fueling this violence against President Trump.”
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Several top Democrats, including both Biden and Harris, have condemned the attacks on Trump as well as political violence in general. Biden has even gone so far as to say he would ensure the Secret Service has “every resource” to protect Trump on the campaign trail.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where the proposal to increase Secret Service protections has gotten support from both Republicans and Democrats.