Grassley, Cortez Masto want Senate confirmation of Secret Service directors

(The Center Square) — U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., filed a bill that would require Senate confirmation of Secret Service directors and impose a 10-year term limit.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned Tuesday, a day after a House committee grilled her over security at a Butler, Penn. event where former President Donald Trump was shot in an assassination attempt.

"President Trump's brush with death was a Secret Service failure of epic proportions, and this mission failure must never be repeated," Grassley said. "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."

Cortez Masto said the bill, called the "Providing Real Oversight and Transparency to Effectively Counter Threats" or PROTECT Act, would scrutinize the Secret Service director like other federal law enforcement officers.

"The Secret Service is a critically important law enforcement agency, and it's past time we started treating it that way," Cortez Masto said.

The heads of the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement and Customs & Border Protection are already confirmed by the Senate, the senators said. The Secret Service has more staff than the U.S. Marshals and the ATF, according to information on the bill. The agency's mission is protection and criminal investigation.

"The USSS employs over 3,802 special agents, 1,574 Uniformed Division officers and more than 2,680 technical professional and administrative support personnel who help carry out these two primary objectives," according to information provided by Grassley and Cortez Masto. "However, public reports for more than a decade have noted USSS staffing shortages that may impact the agency's protective mission."

Cheatle gave short answers with little detail to U.S. House Oversight Committee members on Monday. She was questioned about how the shooter made it to the unoccupied roof and why Trump was allowed on stage even after authorities deemed the shooter as "suspicious."

One man died as a result of the shooting. Trump and two others were injured.