“Transparency is the first step to a reformed Secret Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what\u2019s already known about the agency shows there\u2019s plenty of room for improvement. John Koskinen, the former commissioner of the IRS who worked on the 2021 NAPA report<\/a> on the Secret Service\u2019s workforce, found that the agency needed more staffing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe place ran better if they had enough people, but they were chronically understaffed,\u201d Koskinen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the report, employee turnover and a lack of sufficient hiring resulted in a staff that was less experienced, overworked, and stretched too thin. \u201cThe major finding was that as the staffing increased, employee satisfaction increased,\u201d Koskinen said, meaning that more staffing would lead to less turnover as a result of burnout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Koskinen believes Congress should focus on the lack of sufficient staffing, especially given the expanding scope of the Secret Service\u2019s mission. The number of people it protects, for example, has grown, with requests like Trump\u2019s<\/a> for Secret Service protection for his adult children and top officials just before he left office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not clear, however, whether staffing problems had anything to do with the security lapses at Trump\u2019s rally. The agency did hire over 600 new employees<\/a> in 2023, and the Secret Service had recently bolstered security<\/a> around the former president before the incident. That\u2019s all the more reason for Congress to expand its investigation beyond what went wrong at Trump\u2019s rally to get a full picture of how big of a problem staffing actually is \u2014 before committing more funding to the agency so that, if needed, the money can be properly directed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One question that Congress should ask that could help address the Secret Service\u2019s needs \u2014 from transparency to resources \u2014 is whether the Department of Homeland Security is where it should be housed. Before the 9\/11 attacks, the Secret Service was part of the Treasury Department. But since it moved to Homeland Security in 2003, people have questioned whether it receives enough scrutiny or accountability<\/a>, blending into a massive bureaucracy of over 250,000<\/a> employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAre they given the right visibility in light of the importance of their job, or do they get lost day in and day out of that huge organization?\u201d Koskinen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, with the Secret Service under renewed scrutiny, Congress has a chance to review the agency\u2019s transparency, staffing problems, and the scope of its mission. And it might be time to rethink how the agency approaches all three.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n