“We respect the work of the Independent Review Panel and will carefully examine the report and recommendations released today. We remain fully committed to working with the Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and Congress to address the failures that contributed to the July 13 attempted assassination of former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
However, we are not waiting to act. We have already significantly improved our readiness, operational and organizational communications and implemented enhanced protective operations for the former president and other protectees. This includes making changes to better integrate with our state and local law enforcement partners and augmenting our protection with support from the U.S. Department of Defense and other agencies.
Additionally, we are developing a comprehensive plan aimed at driving a fundamental transformation within the Secret Service to ensure we are appropriately configured to execute our dual integrated mission of protection and complex investigations. This plan focuses on increasing and retaining the agency’s personnel, modernizing our technology, and building a training plan that is sustainable now and into the future. We acknowledge that July 13 did not occur because of a lack of resources, however, our enhanced protective model implemented after July 13 requires additional people, equipment, and asset capabilities. The agency is also working with Congress to increase the agency’s budget so that we can make this paradigm shift a reality and ensure that our people have the resources they need to successfully carry out the mission.
The U.S. Secret Service remains steadfast in our relentless focus on fulfilling our critical mission. I am immensely proud of the dedicated U.S. Secret Service workforce. The men and women of the U.S. Secret Service answer the call to protect our nation’s leaders and major candidates while operating in a heightened and increasingly dynamic threat environment.”