Nearly five months after the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the House task force investigating the attempt released its final report, a 180-page document outlining failures at the Secret Service.
The task force — made up of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans — said the July 13 assassination attempt was “tragic and preventable, and the litany of related security failures are unacceptable.”
Six of the report’s 37 recommendations are explicitly directed toward Congress. Two of those recommendations pose the question of whether the Secret Service should remain partially or wholly part of the Department of Homeland Security.
The Secret Service makes up just 3% of the department’s organizational budget of more than $100 billion. The agency moved under their jurisdiction in 2003, after being housed in the Department of the Treasury since its origin.
“The failure in Butler was far from the first significant USSS failure in recent history, and it is fair to question whether USSS should continue to be housed within DHS,” the report said.
Some task force members in the group’s final hearing expressed support for the Secret Service becoming an independent agency.
“Everyone knows Homeland is not working in its current condition,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz said at a task force hearing last week.
Moskowitz said he would be filing a bill on the first day of the 119th Congress to remove the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Secret Service from Homeland Security, making them direct reports to the White House.
“We have to realize a 22-agency department cannot function efficiently,” he said. “It’s quite frankly the reason why I joined the DOGE committee, to some people’s misconception.”
After the report’s release, task force Chairman Mike Kelly told NOTUS that he’s open to supporting a split from DHS but said he hadn’t made a decision yet.
“We’ll see, we’re making suggestions. We’ll see how it plays out,” Kelly said. “It’s not that I don’t support it; it’s just I’m trying to figure out how would it work. And was it easier when they were part of the Treasury?”
Another recommendation from the task force is for Congress to review whether the Secret Service’s investigative power should be moved to a different agency outside of DHS. The agency still investigates cases of fraud, financial crimes and cybercrimes separate from its primary role in protecting U.S. leaders and candidates.
“These nonprotective, investigative functions require systemic review because of the USSS’s stunning failure to protect President-elect Trump on July 13,” the report read.
Rep. Lou Correa, a member of the task force and a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said it’s still premature to commit one way or another to breaking the Secret Service off from DHS. For one, there are over 30 recommendations for reform in the task force’s findings, many of which have yet to be implemented or are currently in progress.
“I just want to see the issues, and the issue is that the Secret Service is not being effective,” Correa told NOTUS Tuesday evening. “So is the Secret Service being independent of Homeland Security, is that going to make them the most effective? We have to wait and see.”
Still, Correa said he’s open to the idea, depending on the bill.
“The devil’s going to be in the details,” he said.
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Katherine Swartz is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.