Acting Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy will tell Congress that the Secret Service has at...Acting Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy will tell Congress that the Secret Service has at times “fallen short” in its goal of providing error-free protection of the president, the first family and several other protection duties that have greatly expanded in recent years.
The House Judiciary Committee Wednesday morning will hold the first oversight hearing since former Secret Service Director Julia Pierson testified in late September after the Sept. 19 White House fence-jumping incident brought a new level of scrutiny to the agency.
Pierson resigned the next day after revelations first reported by the Washington Examiner of another security breach days earlier involving a private security guard sharing an elevator with President Obama at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson appointed Clancy, a retired special agent in charge of the Presidential Protective Division of the Secret Service, as interim acting director.
Clancy plans to testify Wednesday that he is conducting a “comprehensive, bottom-to-top assessment to determine the root cause behind” the recent string of security breaches and agency missteps.
“While agents and officers of the Secret Service conduct some of the best law enforcement work in the world, events in recent years suggest that while we strive for perfection, we have, on limited occasions, fallen short of that goal,” he plans to say, according to prepared remarks.
He will also point out that the Secret Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility, Office of Integrity and the DHS Office of Inspector General are all reviewing incidents of personnel misconduct and operational missteps.
Clancy also will decry the leaks to the media about the agency’s problems but also acknowledge his concern that employees feel more comfortable speaking to the media than complaining to senior agency officials.
“Instead of an agency that prides itself on operating silently and courageously behind the scenes, we are now in the public spotlight,” he will say. “This has had detrimental effects on workplace morale and operational security, both with potentially dire consequences.”
“I share the concerns expressed by many members of Congress that some employees are more comfortable speaking with people outside the agency than they are with their supervisors,” he adds later in his statement. “This troubles me and was an integral part of why I agreed to return.”
At the onset of his return to the agency, he says he created a Secret Service ombudsman to establish a process to bring issues and questions directly to the executive review board for resolution. He says the process would ensure anonymity for employees with concerns or grievances and includes a “mechanism for communication back to the workforce on the concern” and plans for resolving it.
In addition, he says he has tried to establish better communication from this agency’s leadership down to all personnel.
“Employees should have every assurance that I will continue to work to share information and find solutions to the issues or concerns they voice,” he plans to say.
Clancy will point to several measures he has taken in response to media reports chronicling several security breaches:
In response to:
• A White House shooting on Nov. 11, 2011, in which a gunman sprayed bullets at the upper residence, Clancy says the agency’s delay in identifying evidence of bullet impacts on the structure of the White House is “unacceptable.”
“As a result, the agency contemporaneously instituted a systematic process to search the exterior of the White House Complex following any reported shootings in the immediate vicinity of the property.”
• A breach at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sept. 16, 2014, he says the Office of Protective Operations provided guidance and additional written procedures to clarify and reinforce existing policies.
• Allowing a fence-jumper to run into the front door and make it to the East Room before being tackled and detailed on Sept. 19 “was simply inexcusable.”
He says a “convergence of failures” was responsible and “immediate enhancements” were made to the White House security complex plan that night.
“A review of the incident was conducted by DHS and additional enhancements are being made under my direction. Further productive discussion on the subject of the security enhancements should take place in a classified setting.”
In a section titled “moving forward,” Clancy stresses that the vast majority of the men and women in the Secret Service continue to perform their services in an exemplary manner.
The agency currently provides physical protection for 27 people, including the president, vice president, the first family, former presidents and other government officials, in addition to patrolling more than 500 foreign embassies and missions in the Washington metropolitan area.
“Simply put, our operations never stop,” he says.
Over the last year, the agency provided protection for approximately 6,000 travel stops inside the U.S. and internationally. It also planned and executed security for the State of the Union, the Africa-U.S. Leaders Summit and the United Nationals General Assembly, while simultaneously screening nearly one million White House visitors.
The agency, he points out, stopped approximately 800 weapons at magnetometer checkpoints from entering secured venues and conducted 7,800 protective surveys and made nearly 40 protective intelligence arrests.
“These successes would not have been possible without the hard work of our employees …,” he will testify.
The agency’s staffing levels have declined in recent years, even as the organization workload has expanded, Clancy will point out.
Uniformed Division officers and protective detail agents are experiencing “leave restrictions, canceled days off, forced overtime and the elimination of training.”
Special agents in the field are experiencing greater travel demands, and offices are forced to shift their investigative priorities.
The president’s fiscal year 2015 budget request includes funding to support 6,572 full-time equivalents.
“Ensuring that the Secret Service can sustain its budgeted [full-time equivalent] levels becomes increasingly important, as we look forward to the Pope Francis’ upcoming visit in 2015, the Presidential Campaign in 2016, the post-presidency detail for President Obama, and multiple [national special security events],” he will say.
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