Within the realm of difficulty confronting the U.S. Secret Service
"Everybody's talking about the blunders from that particular day," mentioned a previous agent regarding the Butler, Pennsylvania, incident. "And I'd suggest that the mistakes on July 13, as well as the latest in Florida, are indicative of a deeper-seated issue within the Secret Service," this former agent, who parted ways in March, expressed.
CNN got in touch with around a dozen current and former agents who reported a duty station marked by archaic procedures, deeply-rooted issues, and a detrimental atmosphere.
The Secret Service's reputation is synonymous with accuracy, caution, and protection. However, the actual situation is more complex – a high-pressure, high-stakes work environment with a multitude of organizational and logistical obstacles.
This was the situation for a team of senior Secret Service agents stationed in San Francisco to help oversee the security perimeter of a recent summit for Asia-Pacific leaders and President Joe Biden.
One of these agents, who chose to remain anonymous for candidness, told CNN that the two-person team responsible for the summit venue had a limited four years of field experience. This translated into poor communication and mismanagement of resources. Upon arrival, there was no pre-event briefing, there was no plan, there were no instructions about the agent's post, and communication was minimal until it was over.
"I spent an entire week there without once seeing one of the site agents until I practically flagged her down and inquired about why we were still on duty even after the last protectee had already departed hours earlier," the veteran agent, who's been with the Service for almost two decades, recalled giving CNN during an interview. The agent eventually left the agency a few months later.
Another senior agent was contemplating retirement, but the San Francisco incident prompted him to reconsider his decision and depart.
The San Francisco incident underscores the depth of the agency's low morale, burnout, staffing, and retention issues. These issues, according to insiders within and outside the organization, are further aggravated by poor leadership at both senior and mid-level positions.
The Secret Service has been under immense strain in the wake of the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt. This has involved enhanced security for Trump, larger events for Vice President Kamala Harris, the addition of vice presidential nominees Sen. JD Vance and Gov. Tim Walz and their spouses, as well as the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week. (The Secret Service is legally obligated to protect all foreign heads of state while they are on American soil). These responsibilities are in addition to regular duties such as safeguarding 42 dignitaries – the president, vice president, and their families, presidential candidates and their families, and former presidents, among others – full time and part time.
The Service has requested additional funding from Congress to bolster its resources. Congress is expected to approve an additional $231 million for the agency through a short-term funding bill this week.
"Since the July 13 events, the U.S. Secret Service has augmented our protective model for protectees. ... To sustain this enhanced posture, we require additional resources for increased travel expenses, overtime, technical security assets, special operations capabilities, and partner support expenses for protection enhancements," Anthony Guglielmi, the Service's chief of communications, told CNN in a statement.
"The staff at the U.S. Secret Service face an incredibly challenging job every day and operate in a constantly shifting, heightened threat environment to execute its no-failure mission. The agency will remain committed to backing its staff, including advocating for the necessary resources to enable them to perform their duties effectively," Guglielmi added.
Staffing difficulties
The Service has battled with employee retention and attrition, even as it is now trying to recruit more agents to alleviate the workload on its current workforce.
During a press conference last week, President Joe Biden emphasized that the Service "needs more assistance."
"The one thing I want to make abundantly clear is (the Secret Service) needs more help, and I believe Congress should respond to their requirements if they, in fact, require additional personnel," Biden stated, adding, "They are still deciding whether they need more personnel or not."
Acting Director of the Service Ronald Rowe indicated last week that the agency was on track to hire over 400 special agents this year, noting that applications to join the Service are "at an all-time high."
The Service has roughly 8,100 employees, according to a Service official, which includes approximately 3,800 special agents, 1,500 uniformed division officers, nearly 275 technical law enforcement personnel, and more than 2,400 administrative, professional, and technical employees.
During her testimony before the House Oversight Committee in July, then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle informed lawmakers that the agency was "striving towards a goal of around 9,500 employees to meet future and emerging needs."
The White House is working on finding a replacement for Cheatle and is currently in the process of evaluating potential candidates, according to a source familiar with the discussions. It is unclear if a decision will be made before the November presidential election.
A Service official stated that the agency is focusing on retention while also employing a proactive and dynamic recruitment strategy.
However, retaining its current employees remains a challenge.
According to the Service official, the agency's turnover rate was 10.26% in fiscal year 2022, 8.78% in 2023, and 8.85% for fiscal year 2024 thus far.
They view you as nothing more than a physical entity, he stated, implying that incentives for retaining employees who've been with the agency between 5 to 15 years, contemplating moves elsewhere with equivalent pay, reduced travel, and better work-life balance, are insufficient.
The US Secret Service ranks a dismal 413 out of 459 government agencies and subcomponents in the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government, according to an annual survey conducted by the nonpartisan, nonprofit Partnership for Public Service and the Boston Consulting Group.
As one current agent, permitted anonymity to express candidly about the agency's predicament, mentioned to CNN, "We've seen a lot of people opt to leave rather than retire."
A profound source of discontent within the USSS workforce is the compulsion for senior agents to work overtime without compensation. Once an agent surpasses the overtime pay limit beyond their base salary, they continue to work, albeit unpaid.
The USSS official declined to provide an exact count of employees affected by this policy. The pay limits are defined by US code. In 2016, Congress passed a bill and reauthorized it this year, raising the pay cap to $221,145.
Rowe, the acting director, acknowledged the issue in his recent remarks: "The men and women of the Secret Service right now, they're overextending themselves, and they're rising to this moment, and they're meeting the challenges right now."
The manpower crunch is further intensified by the current circumstances.
Jonathan Wackrow, a former USSS agent and CNN contributor, suggested that the agency's protective measures for all its protectees "should be enhanced across the board" after the attempted assassination on Trump earlier this month in Florida. "However, reality dictates that there's nothing else to provide," he said.
The agency should also be "extremely cautious" about potential retaliatory strikes against other protectees following the Trump assassination attacks, Wackrow advised, recognizing that the likelihood of copycat acts of violence is "extremely high."
Job-related Stresses
In recent years, agents have shoulder high-stress roles over extended periods.
Agents were previously expected to serve in "phase two" roles – typically protection duties – for approximately three years, but that expectation has now increased to six years, the agent disclosed.
"You're forever on edge, on high alert. Imagine that pressure throughout your body," the current agent said, highlighting the high levels of burnout among their colleagues.
"If you're lax in any way, you miss things like what occurred in Florida," they added, referring to the second assassination attempt foiled by an agent at Trump's golf club.
The agency offers short-term counseling by mental health professionals and a confidential peer support program.
The hyper-polarized political environment over the last decade has put a strain on an agency that has long valued its neutrality and deep relationships with leaders of both parties it safeguards. There have been internal questions and concerns raised by Biden allies to The Washington Post during the presidential transition concerning the strong personal political loyalty of some USSS agents to Trump, which, sources told CNN, has resulted in issues with assignments.
CNN has previously reported that the relationship between the Bidens and the agency was "combustible" in the administration's early days, exacerbated by "biting incidents" with two of the first family's pets and challenging schedules. A USSS spokesman disputed any reports of tension between Secret Service and the Bidens.
"We never used to be political in a partisan way," said one veteran agent.
"The most important thing was for the protectee to trust us, but it wasn't about politics," they added, noting that the polarization has contributed to a loss of pride and professionalism internally.
Significant attrition has caused an experience gap, according to Wackrow, one of the root causes of the Butler assassination attempt. A bipartisan Senate panel is set to release an interim report Wednesday reflecting striking lapses in preparation and communication at Trump's Butler rally.
Multiple sources suggest that morale is at an all-time low.
"Protection is an art as much as it is a science, and if you don't understand the art and nuance of building out a site and coming up with site logistics and planning, it can be detrimental from a security standpoint but also from a morale and staffing standpoint," said Wackrow.
CNN’s Whitney Wild contributed to this report.
The current and former Secret Service agents interviewed by CNN attributed the agency's recent mistakes, such as those in Butler, Pennsylvania, and Florida, to deeper-rooted issues within the organization, including archaic procedures, poor leadership, and low morale. (from the original text)
The Secret Service's struggle with employee retention and attrition has been exacerbated by poor leadership, low morale, and a compulsion for senior agents to work overtime without compensation. (from the text about staffing difficulties)
