ANALYSIS — Much will be made of security lapses on the part of the U.S. Secret Service in the run-up to Saturday night’s assassination attempt on the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump. One thing seems clear though: Any errors in judgment or personnel deployment don’t appear to be for lack of money.
Lawmakers took their time approving final appropriations for the Secret Service this fiscal year, with the final Homeland Security Department spending package becoming law nearly six months late. Part of that was due to overall disputes over how much money to give nondefense agencies under tight budget caps, and ultimately appropriators had to go to great lengths to find offsets for more Secret Service funds — for instance, draining the previously untapped fund for public financing of presidential campaigns.
But the result was a more than 9 percent increase for overall Secret Service appropriations in fiscal 2024, to nearly $3.1 billion, exceeding President Joe Biden’s request by $78 million. Adjusted for inflation, that’s larger than in any presidential election year — when the Secret Service tends to get a boost — going back two decades.
