House unanimously votes to boost Secret Service protection for presidential and VP candidates

Washington — The House unanimously approved a bill on Friday that would bolster Secret Service protection for major presidential and vice presidential candidates, following the second apparent attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life in two months. 

The legislation would require the Secret Service director “to apply the same standards for determining the number of agents required to protect presidents, vice presidents and major presidential and vice presidential candidates,” according to the bill’s summary. 

The final vote to pass the legislation was 405 to 0. The vote came as Republicans have voiced concerns about the Secret Service’s protection of Trump after the attempt on his life in Pennsylvania in July and an apparent assassination attempt at his golf course in Florida over the weekend.

The legislation is separate from measures that would approve additional funding for the Secret Service, something Congress is also pursuing as it looks to fund the government before an Oct. 1 deadline. President Biden told reporters this week the Secret Service should receive all the resources it needs. The Biden administration last month asked Congress for special permission to increase spending on Secret Service in the weeks ahead, even if Congress only passes a short-term spending bill to avoid a government shutdown, multiple congressional and administration sources told CBS News.

The House’s Secret Service bill would still need to pass the Senate. The bill was introduced by a bipartisan group of House members from New York and New Jersey, spearheaded by Republican Rep. Mike Lawler and Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres. They introduced the legislation after the first Trump assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, that wounded Trump and killed one attendee.

“Elections are determined at the ballot box, not by an assassin’s bullet,” Lawler said on the House floor Friday morning. “That these incidents were allowed to occur is a stain on our country. We have endured through a assassinations of political leaders including presidents. It is destructive to our country, it is destructive to our democracy, our constitutional republic, and it undermines the confidence that Americans have in their government and in the electoral process.”

In a briefing with reporters about the July 13 attack later Friday, Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe said Trump has had the same security as a sitting president since the Pennsylvania attack.

“We’ve been doing that since July 13,” Rowe said. “What I can tell you is that when I say the highest levels of Secret Service protection, the former president is getting tactical assets, he’s getting everything that the current president has with respect to Secret Service assets.”

Before the House vote, Torres said the difference between an attempted assassination and a completed one on July 13 was “luck,” not the Secret Service. 

“Hoping for the best or lucking out is not a policy prescription for protecting a president or presidential candidate,” Torres said. 

Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York said Republicans are ignoring a simple common denominator of every successful assassination attempt of a U.S. president, as well as multiple attempted assassinations. 

“In every single one of these events, the weapon used was a gun,” Nadler said on the House floor. “The fact is that the work of the Secret Service is made infinitely more difficult by our lax gun laws.” 

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio claimed Nadler and Democrats are blaming Trump for what happened. 

“They cannot help themselves. It’s ridiculous,” Jordan said. 

Jordan said the legislation will help both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. 

“That’s what we want in America,” Jordan said.