Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that House Republicans are “looking at” potentially adding new funding for the Secret Service into a short-term funding bill — though he appeared skeptical that more money is the solution for the agency.
“We’re looking at that. I think it’s a matter of manpower allocation. We don’t want to just throw more money at a broken system. We’re looking at all aspects of it, and we’ll make the right determination,” Johnson told reporters when asked if he thought there was a need to include more Secret Service funding in the stopgap spending bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR.
Johnson’s comments come in the wake of an apparent second attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, which has fueled new questions from lawmakers about the agency.
Though House Republicans have been more complimentary of the agents on the ground on Sunday, they’re still critical of leadership at the Department of Homeland Security and have questions about how the Secret Service is allocating resources.
The funding discussion comes as Congress is facing an Oct. 1 deadline to avoid a government shutdown. Johnson will force a Wednesday vote on legislation to fund the government through March 28, paired with GOP legislation requiring proof of citizenship in order to register to vote.
But that measure is not expected to pass, with Republicans on both sides of the aisle waiting to see what Johnson’s Plan B will be. There’s a growing recognition among House Republicans that they will likely end up passing a short-term government funding bill into December without the so-called SAVE Act attached.
Senate appropriators are in talks with the Secret Service about its need for additional resources. But it’s unclear if it will get attached to this month’s short-term funding bill. Separate from more funding, they are also floating giving the agency more spending flexibility in the eventual CR.
