Washington, D.C. – U.S.Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today introduced bipartisan legislation to ensure qualified and accountable leadership at the U.S. Secret Service (USSS). The Providing Real Oversight and Transparency to Effectively Counter Threats (PROTECT) Act would subject all future USSS Directors to Senate confirmation and a single, 10-year term.
“The Secret Service is a critically important law enforcement agency, and it’s past time we started treating it that way. By making the Secret Service Director a Senate-confirmed position, our bipartisan PROTECT Act will ensure the same level of oversight as other federal law enforcement agencies and support our hardworking agents in doing the best job they can. We can’t accept anything less,” said Senator Cortez Masto.
“The Secret Service’s core mission is to protect the individuals entrusted to its care,” Grassley said. “President Trump’s brush with death was a Secret Service failure of epic proportions, and this mission failure must never be repeated. Our bill is a crucial step toward providing the transparency and accountability that Congress and the American people deserve from the Secret Service. In light of former Director Cheatle’s resignation, Congress must now move quickly to pass our legislation and put a qualified individual at the agency’s helm.”
You can read the full bill text HERE.
As the former top law enforcement official in Nevada, Senator Cortez Masto has been a leading advocate in the Senate for our law enforcement officers and is part of the Senate Law Enforcement Caucus. She has secured historic funding for the Byrne JAG grant program, the leading source of criminal justice funding in the country. She recently passed bipartisan legislation to crack down on transitional drug trafficking and her bipartisan bills to combat the crisis of law enforcement suicide and provide mental health resources to police officers have been signed into law by presidents of both parties.
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