Critical decisions after 9/11 led to slow, steady decline in quality for Secret Service

[Ryan Fitzomething]

Source: Washington Post

By Carol D. Leonnig December 27 at 10:47 PM

The Secret Service began struggling to carry out its most basic duties after Congress and the George W. Bush administration expanded the elite law enforcement agency’s mission in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

According to government documents and interviews with dozens of current and former officials, the recent string of security lapses at the White House resulted from a combination of tight budgets, bureaucratic battles and rapidly growing demands on the agency that have persisted through the Bush and Obama administrations in the 13 years since the attacks. At the same time, the Secret Service was hit by a wave of early retirements that eliminated a generation of experienced staff members and left the agency in a weakened state just as its duties were growing.

The agency assumed new responsibilities monitoring crowds at an increasing number of major sporting events and other large gatherings seen as potential targets for terrorists. A new anti-terrorism law gave the agency a leading role in tracking cyberthreats against U.S. financial systems. And Bush expanded the circle of people granted round-the-clock protection to include the president’s and vice president’s extended family and some White House aides — an expansion that has been largely maintained under President Obama.

Where the Secret Service had been a gem of the Treasury Department for more than a century, its post-9/11 transfer to the sprawling new Department of Homeland Security suddenly forced it to compete for money and attention with bigger and higher-profile agencies focused on immigration and airport security.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/critical-decisions-after-911-led-to-slow-steady-decline-in-quality-for-secret-service/2014/12/27/48fa3cd6-7f3a-11e4-81fd-8c4814dfa9d7_story.html

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My question: What fundamental underpinnings of this country did not come unglued under the psychotic machinations of Richard Bruce Cheney after 9/11???

[Historic NY]

1. They even brought back people on a part-time basis....

a couple friends got recruited back because other work of the SS wasn't being handled properly or at all.

Congress right now is holding addional funding hostage for the SS.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/jeh-johnson-funding-request-113259.html

[JDDavis]

2. Good question, Ryan Fitzsomething!

Basically, everything the federal government does declined in effectiveness under Bush/Cheney.

I also think the demands on the Secret Service increased with Obama campaigning and being elected.

Compared to Bush, Obama makes almost weeklypublic appearances somewhere, and often more than one in a week with large crowds. Contrasted to Bush and Cheney, it's not that hard to provide security to a president who spends 7-10 weeks a year hidden away in rural Texas, or Cheney in an "undisclosed location", hunting.

Add to that, the prolific number of Republican primary candidates who expect to be covered, at least a dozen last time around. Then we have the universal availability of email to virtually any nut out there who wants send an email to threaten Obama.

And now Congress is holding up more funding for the agency? Good luck seeing an expansion of funding during the next 2 years with Republicans controlling both houses.

[Frank Cannon]

3. Our gift from the party of "smaller government".

The DHS is quite likely the most bloated, inefficient, fucked-up bureaucracy on Earth.

It needs to be carved up like a Christmas ham, and every one of its constituent agencies needs to account for and justify every penny of its budget the way that NASA and the FDA have to. That's how Dad did it. That's how America did it. And prior to Bush and Cheney's shenanigans, it worked out pretty well.

[benld74]

4. Considering the size of the SS I am sure they

were run over by the larger agencies during consolidation and ignored. Hence,,,,,

[benz380]

5. The name of your boat, please. Nt

[sofa king]

6. A decline to "the greatest in human history...."

Hello? Guess which President had the most actionable threats against his life ever, more than Hitler, more than Jerry Ford? (Yes, that's an attempt at humor, there.)

This President!

Yet he moves freely throughout the world, untouched and, to public knowledge, nobody ever even got close enough to cause trouble.

Yet the volume of threats against this President exceeds the total population of most other nations in history. Which makes this Secret Service the greatest lifeguarding service probably ever.

If they need more money spent in better places, then I'm all for it. But I think it's totally unfair to accuse these most hard working and dedicated Americans of "declining" in the terms of the protection they provide, which is and has been flawless this millenium.