GOP lawmakers wrestle with emergency Secret Service funding amid government shutdown fight
Fox News
House Republicans are toying with the idea of attaching additional U.S. Secret Service (USSS) funds to a short-term spending patch aimed at avoiding an Oct. 1 partial government shutdown.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is teeing up a vote Wednesday evening on his plan to avert a shutdown, a six-month spending patch called a continuing resolution (CR), which is being paired with a measure to require proof of citizenship for voter registration.
It’s likely to fail, given significant GOP opposition to any kind of CR and Democrats’ opposition to the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.
Multiple House Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital Wednesday signaled they are bracing for a CR with no conservative policies attached, which would only go through December — the position taken by the Senate Democratic majority.
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Several GOP lawmakers who spoke with Fox News Digital also suggested that pairing some kind of additional funds for USSS could also get widespread support, particularly after the recent assassination attempts against former President Trump, the GOP presidential nominee.
Rep. John Duarte, R-Calif., one of the House GOP’s most vulnerable lawmakers in November’s election, told Fox News Digital he would support such a move if Wednesday’s vote failed.
“We’ve had two attempts on the president in the last month or two, and we know how devastating these assassinations could be to the country. So, if things are so heightened that we have to add more Secret Service funding, it’s important for our democracy that we do it,” Duarte said.
When asked about the inevitability of a “clean” December CR without conservative policies, one senior House Republican told Fox News Digital, “I mean, when you look at it, that’s the history.”
The Republican added it was “highly likely” Wednesday’s vote failing would lead to discussions about additional USSS funds in a backup plan “given everything that’s happened.”
Another senior House GOP lawmaker said “there’s appetite to do it” but noted there were logistical questions, like whether additional funding for the USSS could make a difference before the election.
“The issue with it is, so you’ve got the funding, how do you hire that quickly?” the senior lawmaker said. “It’s definitely something we’re working through enough to be mentioned, but I haven’t been to any strategy meetings about it.”
“I think most of us realize that obviously it’s … not like the Senate’s going to take up our package. So they’re going to bounce it back to us with just a three-month CR,” another House Republican said. “If we don’t take it up, I don’t know what the other options are.”
The second GOP lawmaker asserted there was a healthy appetite among House Republicans to add more USSS funding to a short-term spending bill.
“We spent all this time on the floor doing appropriations bills we know aren’t going anywhere in the Senate — an incredible amount of floor time. And that’s what’s going to end up happening,” a third House Republican said of a CR without the SAVE Act.
Other GOP lawmakers, however, insisted that if that was the case, Congress should not entertain requests to couple a CR with emergency USSS funds.
“I’m less worried about budget and more worried about leadership,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital.
House Appropriations Committee member Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., said, “The Secret Service has a priority problem. I don’t think they have a funding problem.”
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., similarly said USSS’s issues were “organizational” rather than financial.
“Some of this is just common sense. Like, why hasn’t this White House just said, ‘You know what? Donald Trump is a former president who is now running for president. You can’t treat him like another presidential candidate,’” Donalds said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Johnson’s office for comment.
Meanwhile, the House is also voting on a bipartisan bill Friday that would grant Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris the same level of Secret Service protection as President Biden.