Barack Obama taps Joseph Clancy as Secret Service chief
President Barack Obama has tapped a close confidant as the new permanent head of the Secret Service, despite repeated demands by members of Congress for fresh blood atop the troubled agency. Joseph Clancy has served as the agencyâs acting director since October, when Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson tapped him after a series of embarrassing fumbles involving the First Familyâs security forced the agency to replace the bulk of its senior staff. Story Continued Below âUltimately, Joe Clancy struck the right balance of familiarity with the Secret Service and its missions, respect from within the workforce, and a demonstrated determination to make hard choices and foster needed change,â Johnson said in a statement Wednesday. But some congressional Republicans immediately criticized the pick, saying an administration insider is not what the agency needs. In December, an independent panel examining the Secret Serviceâs missteps recommended that its next chief be âa strong leader from outside the agency â¦ who can drive cultural change in the organization.â âIt is disappointing the president ignored the recommendation from the independent panel, appointed by Secretary Johnson, to select a director from outside the Secret Service,â Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a statement Wednesday. âThe panel made it crystal clear that only a director from outside the agency would meet the needs of the agency today â someone with a fresh perspective, free from allegiances and without ties to what has consistently been described as a âgood old boys network.ââ Chaffetz, a leading critic of the Secret Service, added: âThe good men and women of the Secret Service are screaming for a fresh start.â Michigan Republican Rep. Tim Walberg called Clancy a âdiscouragingâ selection. âAs an independent panel recommended, restoring the Secret Service requires an outsider with a fresh approach and without ties to prior leadership,â he said. âWhile I wish Director Clancy well, itâs still discouraging to see President Obama ignore this advice from the panel for an agency in desperate need of reform.â But House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) praised the pick. He noted that when Clancy testified before the committee in 2014, he had âpledged to address the departmentâs past failures and work to ensure that the hardworking officers and agents of the Secret Service have all the resources and training necessary to carry out their core function of protecting the president, vice president, and other dignitaries.â Rep. Elijah Cummings, the Oversight Committeeâs top Democrat, also cheered Clancyâs selection. âJoe Clancy has taken strong action over the past several months to begin righting the ship at the Secret Service, he has been extremely responsive to Congress, and his decisive leadership has already resulted in major changes,â the Maryland Democrat said in a statement. Clancy, 58, who retired in 2011 after 27 years in the Secret Service, took over after his predecessor, Julia Pierson, resigned amid a rough patch for the agency â including an instance in which a man jumped the White House fence and made it through the front door. In another incident, an armed man briefly shared an elevator ride with the president. Other problems for the agency stretched back to the 2012 prostitution scandal in Cartagena, Colombia. Immediately before returning to the Secret Service last fall, Clancy was executive director of cable security at Comcast Corp. Heâs received generally positive reviews from Congress during his five-month stint as acting director, forcing a number of senior officials to resign or retire their top posts and working with congressional Republicans who are probing the agency. Despite criticizing the selection, Chaffetz spoke with Clancy on Wednesday to offer his congratulations. Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had informed Chaffetz of Obamaâs choice. Before beginning his career in the Secret Service, Clancy was a high school teacher in Philadelphia and coached football and basketball. He graduated from Villanova University with a bachelorâs degree in political science and criminal justice.