The House is expected to vote Friday to pass a bill bolstering Secret Service protection for major presidential and vice presidential candidates, a move that comes in the wake of two apparent assassination attempts targeting GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
The bill directs the Secret Service director to apply uniform standards for protection of presidents, vice presidents and major presidential and vice presidential candidates.
The Secret Service is under scrutiny in Congress after two apparent assassination attempts on Trump, the first on July 13 at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania and the second on September 15 at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told CNN he expects the vote on the House bill to be unanimous.
Following the first assassination attempt, “the Secret Service moved to increase assets to an already enhanced security posture for the former president,” Ronald Rowe Jr., acting director of the US Secret Service, said at a briefing the day after the second incident.
“In the days that followed, President Biden made it clear that he wanted the highest levels of protection for former President Trump and for Vice President Harris. The Secret Service moved to sustain increases in assets and the level of protections sought. And those things were in place yesterday,” he added.
A source with direct knowledge of the legislation told CNN that the House bill will codify what President Joe Biden did and the process by which he did it. The bill will also authorize the president to extend this protection to any other presidential or vice presidential candidate for whom they have otherwise authorized the Secret Service to protect.
