Lawmakers consider changes to Secret Service

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By ERICA WERNER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Key members of Congress are weighing dramatic changes to the embattled Secret Service, including moving it out of the Homeland Security Department and breaking up its mission.

The proposals come as lawmakers assess how to improve the agency after a series of scandals, including a White House break-in by a man with a knife last month. The agency's director, Julia Pierson, resigned amid the controversy, but lawmakers are promising they'll continue their focus once Congress reconvenes after the Nov. 4 midterm elections.

In the latest development, The Washington Post reported Thursday on evidence implicating a White House advance team member in a prostitution scandal involving Secret Service agents in Colombia in 2012. White House officials have denied involvement by anyone on their team, but the Post story said White House officials were informed at the time.

One suggestion for improving operations at the Secret Service involves moving it back into the Treasury Department, where it resided for decades until the creation of the Homeland Security Department following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

FULL story at link.



FILE - In this Sept. 30, 2014, file photo, House Oversight Committee member Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, leads the questioning of then-Secret Service Director Julia Pierson as the committee examines details surrounding a security breach at the White House on Capitol Hill in Washington. The committee's ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Mid. is at left. Capitol Hill lawmakers investigating the Secret Service say they want to look into moving it out of the Homeland Security Department and back into the Treasury Department. Secret Service was part of the Treasury up until the Homeland Security Department was created after the 9/11 terror attacks. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)



Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20141009/us--secret_service-congress-e4cd1c1242.html

[valerief]

1. I'll bet they decide to only elect Republicans. That'll ease the SS burden. nt

[The Blue Flower]

2. Wait a minute--they're working?

nt

[jwirr]

3. Wait until they pass some kind of plan that is reasonable. Then you will know if they are working.

[Horse with no Name]

4. Sorry....don't trust this set of lawmakers to clean up the poop on the White House lawn

Can't imagine entrusting the life of THIS President to them.

edited to say getting ahead of myself, lol

[scarletwoman]

5. While I'm generally leery of any reforms proposed by Republicans,

I unequivocally support the proposal to move the Secret Service OUT of the Homeland Security Department!