The House of Representatives has passed a bipartisan bill strengthening U.S. Secret Service (USSS) protections for leading presidential and vice presidential candidates following two foiled assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump.
The bill passed unanimously by a vote of 405 to 0, a rare display of bipartisanship in Congress.
The legislation was introduced by Reps. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., and Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., in response to the July 13 shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
A 20-year-old gunman was able to open fire on the rally from a rooftop just outside the rally perimeter, killing one attendee and wounding Trump and two others.
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Former President Donald Trump was injured in an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024, and a second attempt occurred a few weeks later. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Weeks later, USSS agents arrested a man near Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach who was waiting for the former president during a match Sunday with an SKS rifle.
If passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Biden, the legislation would mandate a comprehensive overhaul of the USSS’s protection standards and uniform standards for the security of presidents, vice presidents, and major White House candidates.
“No matter how Americans feel, no matter how they intend to vote, the American people have the right to determine the outcome of this election. The idea that our election could be decided by an assassin’s bullet should shake the conscience of our nation, and it demands swift action from the federal government,” Lawler said during debate on the bill Thursday.
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Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., is the lead Republican on the bill. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“It is shocking that it took a second assassination attempt for Donald Trump to get the same level of protection from the Secret Service as the President of the United States.”
Progressive Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said he supported the bill but argued it would be meaningless without stricter gun laws.
“I support this bill because the Secret Service must be able to protect our highest elected officials and candidates. But this bill will do nothing to improve our security, or change the fact that gun violence continues to claim the lives of more than 100 Americans every day,” Nadler said.
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House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio, dismissed Nadler’s comments and accused him of portraying the assassination attempts as “the Republicans’ fault.”
“The next thing they’ll say is, ‘Oh, some left-wing nutjob is trying to assassinate President Trump, and it’s President Trump’s fault.’ Oh, wait a minute. They said that too. That’s ridiculous,” Jordan said.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., is leading the bill on the Democratic side. (Getty)
It is not yet clear how the bill would classify “major” candidates.
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After the first attempt against Trump, Biden extended the enhanced protection of the USSS to the former president, against whom he was still running at the time, before dropping out of the race.
He also granted a request for USSS protection to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., then a third-party candidate.
