Secret Service set to get funding boost in Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’

The Secret Service is poised to receive a significant funding boost in Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill” for increased resources needed to protect President Trump and other top officials.

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s portion of the budget reconciliation package includes $1.17 billion for the Secret Service to spend on resources such as personnel, training facilities and technology over the next four years.

The version of the bill the House passed last month includes the same funding provision, all but ensuring that the Secret Service will receive the money if a final package clears both chambers and makes it to Mr. Trump’s desk.

Republicans want to send a final package to the president by July 4, which, if successful, would come just before the one-year mark since Mr. Trump was shot during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The would-be assassin’s bullet might have killed Mr. Trump had he not turned his head at the last minute to look at a chart he was showing the crowd. Instead, the bullet grazed his ear and he lived to “fight, fight, fight,” as he infamously chanted as Secret Service agents escorted him away from the scene.

The July 13 assassination attempt against Mr. Trump sparked congressional investigations into the Secret Service’s failures that day and debate around whether the agency needed more funding or simply a leadership and culture overhaul.

The Secret Service’s current annual budget is $3.1 billion, although Congress included an extra $231 million for protective operations in the stopgap spending measure it passed after the second attempt on Mr. Trump’s life in September. That would-be assassin, who perched outside Mr. Trump’s golf club in Florida with a rifle, was stopped by the Secret Service before he could fire.

The agency had already enhanced protective operations for Mr. Trump, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and their running mates after the July assassination attempt and was burning through a lot of resources, said Ronald Rowe, who was the Secret Service’s acting director at the time.

The extra money Congress included in the stopgap was meant to provide enough resources for the Secret Service to sustain enhanced protective operations through the November 2024 presidential election and January 2025 inauguration of the winner, which ended up being Mr. Trump.

House and Senate Republicans’ decision to provide the agency more money in the big beautiful bill – a nearly 10% boost in its annual budget over the next four years – suggests the heightened threat around Mr. Trump continues, although the money is not earmarked specifically for his protection.

The Washington Times reached out to the Secret Service for comment about the intended use of the funds.

Another portion of the Senate bill released late Thursday by Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, includes $300 million to reimburse state and local law enforcement for supporting the Secret Service’s work to protect the private residences of current and former presidents.

The provision, which was also included in the House-passed bill, applies only to costs incurred since July 1 of last year. That suggests the bulk of the funding is likely related to costs incurred to protect Mr. Trump at his various residences, primarily his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago.