Keeping the heat on the Secret Service
Republicans and Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee rarely agree on anything, but Reps. Jason Chaffetz and Elijah Cummings are turning up results in their drive to dump the top leadership at the troubled Secret Service. Only a handful of the agencyâs senior leaders are still hanging on from two years ago, when Chaffetz, now the committeeâs Republican chairman, began investigating misconduct. Just this week, he and Cummings â the committeeâs top Democrat â helped shove much-maligned Secret Service Deputy Director Alvin âA.T.â Smith to the exit. Story Continued Below Itâs been a rough period for the Secret Service, from a 2012 scandal involving prostitutes in Colombia to last yearâs White House fence-jumper. But the agencyâs progress since then will also be on display Thursday when the Oversight Committee hears from four witnesses who probed the agency last fall. Both Cummings and Chaffetz give much of the credit to their own ability to work together, which they call a departure from the often-acrimonious tenure of former committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). âThe unified front is obviously more effective. Itâs pretty hard to say no and disregard us when weâre united,â said Chaffetz, from Utah. âIâve been working with Elijah Cummings on the Secret Service issues for months â¦ and itâs yielded visible results. Weâre not done yet.â Chaffetz argued that if he can âcall balls and strikesâ by working alongside the Maryland Democrat, the Obama administration may be more apt to work with the committeeâs document requests and investigations. Cummings agreed. âI have always believed that our committeeâs oversight is most effective when it is bipartisan, and I am encouraged so far at the way we have been conducting our work,â the Maryland Democrat said. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers credit Chaffetz with pushing the Secret Service to the forefront of the committeeâs agenda when he was still just a rank-and-file member in the previous Congress. He pressured the agency for explanations on a series of incorrect comments it had made to the media on the timeline of fence-jumper Omar Gonzalezâs entry to the White House. Chaffetz also helped spur reports on the agencyâs failure to stop an armed man from entering an elevator with President Barack Obama and its slowness to realize that a shooter had grazed the White House in 2011. Last monthâs crash of a federal employeeâs small drone on the White House grounds also raised questions about the Secret Serviceâs ability to prevent aerial threats to the president. Now Cummings and Chaffetz are focusing on how to reform the agency. Acting Director Joe Clancy has outlined steps heâs taken to correct management and training problems during his closed-door briefing with the lawmakers, a staffer for the committee said. At the top of the list is creating new pathways for senior officials, including the chief financial officer and chief operating officer, to get greater authority to raise concerns about funding and management problems. Chaffetz said he is also eagerly waiting to see whom the Obama administration taps to permanently replace former Director Julia Pierson, a decision he said he expects in the coming weeks. âThey need a new director who can form the agency with their vision,â he said. âThere are massive management and training issues and they need to be a solid manager of people and have a vision to create an elite agency.â The latest concrete result from Chaffetzâs pressure is this weekâs news that Smith is stepping down as deputy director and will be reassigned to another post in the Department of Homeland Security. Complex personnel laws hinder the Secret Service from firing the former director of operations outright, and the Secret Service declined to comment on Smithâs new role. Chaffetz said he repeatedly argued during meetings with Clancy, DHS officials and senior White House officials that Smith, a 28-year-agency veteran, was a major drag on the agencyâs morale and operations. Cummings and Chaffetz met with Clancy during a classified meeting Tuesday, which followed two private meetings in February with the White House and Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The lawmakers have two more meetings in 2015 on the Secret Serviceâs response to the White House jumper and a shooting outside Vice President Joe Bidenâs Delaware home. Chaffetz âspecifically said Smith needs to go [during these meetings], and the fact that ranking member Cummings went hand and hand with him only made it stronger,â said an Oversight investigator familiar with the conversations. Smith also drew criticism for approving changes to how new recruits and officers are trained that lawmakers have complained leave the agency short of well-trained officers ready to respond to security problems. Last year, Smith also took criticism after revelations that he had diverted agents from the White House to check in on a Secret Service administrative assistant who was involved in a dispute with a neighbor. More than two dozen whistleblowers contacted Chaffetz during the two years heâs run point on the Secret Service investigation for the House â and nearly all of them complained about Smithâs role, he said. Smith, who had been part of the protective detail for Hillary Clinton when she was first lady, made headlines in 2000 when he married one of Bill Clintonâs cousins. He was one of the last senior directors to keep his post after Gonzalez jumped the fence Sept. 19, one of a series of episodes that prompted deep skepticism on the agencyâs ability to protect Obama and his family. Pierson resigned weeks after that incident. Also forced out were Dale Pupillo, the assistant director for protective operations; Paul Morrissey, who headed the investigations unit; Jane Murphy, who handled government and public affairs; and Mark Copanzzi, the agencyâs chief technology director. Two other assistant directors, Vic Erevia and Gregory Marchio, also quietly announced their retirement. Chaffetz said he still has âdeep-seated concernsâ that the agency is âfailingâ in six areas: technology, training, leadership, culture, protocol and budget. âI see them failing at all six of those areas,â he said. âThey really havenât had oversight in the last 15 years, so this is somewhat new to them and they are somewhat resistant still.â The controversies prompted Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to create a Secret Service-focused panel to investigate how Pierson and other senior officials were kept in the dark about security risks and why proper protocols werenât followed when Gonzalez scaled the fence. That panel released a scathing report on Dec. 15 that criticized the agency for failures on training, security and leadership. The panel also called for a new director. Clancy had been scheduled to testify at Thursdayâs hearing on the steps the agency has taken to improve its management, but Chaffetz said the committee answered the Secret Serviceâs request to postpone his appearance after Smithâs sudden departure. The panel plans to reschedule with Clancy in âthe coming weeks,â Chaffetz said.