House Dem Unveils Bill to Expand Secret Service Perimeter

(AP)

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., introduced a bill Tuesday that would require the Secret Service to expand its security perimeter to 500 yards at public events, the latest in a series of bills he has authored to strengthen protection of presidents, vice presidents, and presidential candidates.

Torres’ bill would also give the USSS the authority to expand the perimeter beyond 500 yards if it deemed necessary, something current law does not require.

His bill comes after the assassination attempt on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump one month ago in Butler, Pennsylvania. The shooter was roughly 400 feet away using an AR-15-style rifle from an elevated position.

Torres’ measure, titled the “AR-15 Perimeter Security Enhancement Act,” aims “to ensure that any security perimeter is co-extensive with the firing range of firearms likely to be used in assassination attempts and to secure all elevated positions within the firing range of firearms likely to be used in assassination attempts.”

It would also require that elevated positions within firing range be secured.

Torres is also introducing the “Focus on Protection Act,” which would remove from the USSS the responsibility of investigating financial crimes, the agency’s original mission. That bill would “transfer the investigative jurisdiction over payment and financial systems” from the USSS to the Treasury Department within 180 days, freeing up the USSS to “focus on its core mission.”

The USSS was established in 1865 as an agency within the Treasury Department to crack down on counterfeiting in the aftermath of the Civil War. It was given the role of protection in the wake of the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901.

The USSS has been under the Department of Homeland Security since 2003.

In the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt July 13, which killed a rallygoer and injured Trump and two others, Torres co-sponsored a bipartisan bill with Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., called the “The Enhanced Presidential Security Act of 2024,” which sought to establish “uniform standards for Secret Service protection” for presidents, vice presidents, and presidential candidates.