U.S. Secret Service Protection Mission Funding and Staffing: Fact Sheet

Updated September 23, 2024

Congressional Research Service

https://crsreports.congress.gov

R48129

Congressional Research Service

SUMMARY

U.S. Secret Service Protection Mission Funding and Staffing: Fact Sheet

Members of Congress periodically focus on the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) and its protection mission. The USSS has been protecting Presidents, other specific federal government officials, and their families for over 100 years. Over these years, USSS protection activities and operations have expanded, not only with an increase in the number of protected individuals, but in statutory responsibility as the lead federal agency for National Special Security Events (NSSE).

Over the past century, congressional legislative action on the USSS has focused primarily on its protection mission. The last two enacted non-appropriations measures were the Former Presidents Protection Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-257) and Investigative Assistance for Violent Crimes Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-265). These laws amend previous laws to address the USSS’ protection of former Presidents and their families, and permits the Department of Homeland Security Secretary to offer USSS investigative assistance for mass killings when requested by state or local authorities. Annually Congress (through appropriations and budget hearings) provides funding and guidance so the USSS can execute its statutorily required duties as detailed in 18 U.S.C. 3056, including its protection mission. This report provides funding and personnel data related to the USSS generally, and its protection mission specifically.

R48129

September 23, 2024

Shawn Reese Analyst in Emergency Management and Homeland Security Policy

William L. Painter Specialist in Homeland Security and Appropriations

U.S. Secret Service Protection Mission Funding and Staffing: Fact Sheet

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Contents

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Protection Mission Funding and Staffing ........................................................................................ 2

Figures

Figure 1. Total USSS Appropriations FY2016-FY2025 Request ................................................... 3

Figure 2. USSS Protection-Specific Funding FY2016-FY2025 Request ....................................... 3

Figure 3. Funding for USSS Protection-Specific Operations and Support Programs

FY2016-FY2024 .......................................................................................................................... 5

Figure 4. USSS Appropriations for Presidential Campaigns and National Special Security

Events FY2016-FY2025 Request ................................................................................................. 6

Figure 5. USSS Total Staffing ......................................................................................................... 7

Tables

Table 1. Appropriations for the USSS, FY2016-FY2025 Request .................................................. 4

Table 2. USSS Protection-Specific Operations and Support Programs FY2016-FY2024 .............. 5 Table 3. Presidential Campaigns and National Special Security Events FY2016-FY2025

Request ......................................................................................................................................... 6

Table 4. USSS Total Staffing ........................................................................................................... 8

Contacts

Author Information .......................................................................................................................... 9

U.S. Secret Service Protection Mission Funding and Staffing: Fact Sheet

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Introduction

The USSS conducts two mandated missions—criminal investigations and protection of persons and facilities. The criminal investigation mission (focused primarily on financial crimes) is the USSS’s oldest mission; however, the protection mission receives the most public and media attention. The protection mission includes providing security for specific government officials and facilities.¹ The USSS is statutorily directed to protect the following individuals:²

• the President, the Vice President,³ the President-elect, and the Vice President- elect;

• the immediate families of those listed above;

• former Presidents and their spouses for their lifetime;⁴

• children of a former President who are under 16 years of age;

• visiting heads of foreign states or governments, and other distinguished foreign visitors to the United States and official representatives of the United States performing special missions abroad when the President directs that such protection be provided;

• major presidential and vice-presidential candidates and, within 120 days of the general presidential election, the spouses of such candidates;⁵ and

• former Vice Presidents, their spouses, and their children who are under 16 years of age, for a period of not more than six months after the date the former Vice President leaves office.⁶

Separate from protecting specific mandated individuals and facilities such as White House complex, the Vice President’s official residence at the Naval Observatory, the Treasury Building, and foreign diplomatic missions in Washington, DC,⁷ the USSS is also responsible for security activities related to National Special Security Events (NSSEs), which include inauguration ceremonies, major party quadrennial national conventions, as well as some international conferences and events⁸ held in the United States.

This fact sheet provides information on USSS funding and staffing related to the USSS protective mission described above.

1 For further information on the USSS, and other federal agencies, protection mission, see CRS Report R47731, Who Protects Whom? Federal Official and Judicial Security and Personal Protective Details, by Shawn Reese.

2 18 U.S.C. §3056(a).

3 Or other officer next in the order of succession to the Office of the President.

4 Except the protection of a spouse shall terminate in the event of remarriage.

5 “Major presidential and vice-presidential candidates” means those individuals identified as such by the DHS Secretary after consultation with an advisory committee consisting of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the minority leader of the House of Representatives, the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, and one additional member selected by the other members of the committee.

6 The DHS Secretary shall have the authority to direct the USSS to provide temporary protection for any of these individuals at any time thereafter if the DHS Secretary or designee determines that information or conditions warrant such protection.

7 84 Stat. 74-75 authorizes the USSS to secure these facilities and 90 Stat. 2475 authorizes the USSS to temporarily secure the President’s and Vice President’s personally owned residences.

8 For more information on special events and National Special Security Events, see CRS Report R47439, Special Event Security and National Special Security Events: A Summary and Issues for Congressional Consideration, by Shawn Reese.

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Specifically, this fact sheet provides

• Annual Appropriations for the U.S. Secret Service, FY2016-FY2025 (Table 1, Figure 1, and Figure 2);

• USSS Protection-specific Funding, FY2016-FY2025 (Table 2 and Figure 3);

• USSS Funding for Presidential Campaigns and National Special Security Events, FY2025 (Table 3 and Figure 4); and

• USSS End-of-Year Staffing, 2008-2023 (Table 4 and Figure 5).

Protection Mission Funding and Staffing

The following tables and figures provide data on USSS total and protection-specific funding, USSS protection-specific operations and support programs funding, presidential campaign and NSSE funding, and end-of-fiscal year staffing.

The USSS does not provide detailed public reporting on its use of funding and personnel for protective missions, and staff move back and forth between protection and criminal investigation activities as duties require. Therefore, CRS has used two specific subdivisions of appropriations made in appropriations detail tables to identify funding specifically requested by the White House and directed by Congress to the USSS protection mission: Protective Operations, within the USSS Operations and Support appropriation; and Protection Infrastructure, within the Procurement, Construction, and Improvements appropriation.⁹

9 USSS also receives Research and Development funding, which periodically goes to protection-related work, but is not specifically directed by Congress on a regular basis and cannot be consistently tracked by CRS.

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Figure 1. T otal USSS Appropriations

FY2016-FY2025 Request

(Thousands of $ in Nominal Budget Authority)

Source: CRS analysis of appropriations bills and reports.

Figure 2. USSS Protection-Specific Funding

FY2016-FY2025 Request

(Thousands in $ of Nominal Budget Authority)

Source: CRS analysis of appropriations bills and reports. Notes: Protection-specific programs included in this total are Operations and Support / Protective Operations, and Procurement, Construction and Improvements / Protection Infrastructure. Other USSS funding contributes to the protective mission as well, including mission support and research and development efforts, but usage of specific amounts of those funds cannot be authoritatively attributed by CRS. Due to restructuring of appropriations accounts in FY2017, a comparable breakdown of Protection-specific activities is not possible for FY2016 or earlier.

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Table 1. Appropriations for the USSS, FY2016-FY2025 Request

(Thousands of $ in Nominal Budget Authority)

Fiscal Year Request Enacted Difference

2016 1,939,122 1,933,545 -5,577

Protection-specific n/a^a 764,012 n/a

2017 1,891,119 2,045,578 154,459

Protection-specific 782,284 836,244 53,960

2018 1,957,495 2,006,524 49,029

Protection-specific 843,487 875,865 32,378

2019 2,151,624 2,248,159 96,535

Protection-specific 932,220 969,987 37,767

2020 2,308,977 2,415,845 106,868

Protection-specific 1,066,622 1,087,426 20,804

2021 2,360,538 2,438,001 77,463

Protection-specific 1,036,739 1,074,812 38,073

2022 2,571,917 2,611,888 39,971

Protection-specific 1,071,716 1,092,269 20,553

2023 2,703,509 2,822,180 118,671

Protection-specific 1,137,149 1,210,902 73,753

2024 3,009,778 3,087,797 78,019

Protection-specific 1,428,248 1,492,010 63,762

2025 2,938,381

Protection-specific 1,283,064

Source: CRS analysis of appropriations bills and reports. Notes: Protection-specific amounts included in this total are Operations and Support / Protective Operations, and Procurement, Construction and Improvements / Protection Infrastructure. Other USSS funding contributes to the protective mission as well, including mission support and research and development efforts, but usage of specific amounts of those funds cannot be authoritatively attributed by CRS. a. Due to restructuring of appropriations accounts in FY2017, a comparable breakdown of Protections specific activities is not possible for FY2016 or earlier.

U.S. Secret Service Protection Mission Funding and Staffing: Fact Sheet

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Figure 3. Funding for USSS Protection-Specific Operations and Support Programs

FY2016-FY2024

(Thousands of $ in Enacted Amounts)

Source: CRS analysis of appropriations bills and reports. Notes: Other USSS Operations and Support funding contributes to the protective mission as well, but usage of specific amounts of those funds cannot be authoritatively attributed by CRS.

Table 2. USSS Protection-Specific Operations and Support Programs

FY2016-FY2024

(Thousands of $ in Enacted Amounts)

Protection of

Persons and

Facilities,

Enacted

Protective

Countermeasures,

Enacted

Protective

Intelligence,

Enacted

Presidential

Campaigns and

National Special Security Events,

Enacted

2016 509,825 55,000 38,700 149,487

2017 627,987 58,193 44,490 51,734

2018 711,227 46,862 47,814 4,500

2019 740,895 56,917 49,395 37,494

2020 754,527 61,756 49,955 155,199

2021 818,795 68,182 52,155 83,725

2022 863,549 87,762 74,167 25,000

2023 907,707 82,506 94,565 73,294

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Protection of

Persons and

Facilities,

Enacted

Protective

Countermeasures,

Enacted

Protective

Intelligence,

Enacted

Presidential

Campaigns and

National Special Security Events,

Enacted

2024 1,031,766 72,374 84,973 243,699

Source: CRS analysis of appropriations bills and reports. Notes: Other USSS Operations and Support funding contributes to the protective mission as well, but usage of specific amounts of those funds cannot be authoritatively attributed by CRS.

Figure 4. USSS Appropriations for Presidential Campaigns and National Special

Security Events

FY2016-FY2025 Request

(Thousands of $ in Requested and Enacted Amounts)

Source: CRS analysis of appropriations bills and reports. Note: Due to restructuring of appropriations accounts in FY2017, a comparable breakdown of Protection- specific activities is not possible for FY2016 or earlier.

Table 3. Presidential Campaigns and National Special Security Events

FY2016-FY2025 Request

(Thousands of $ in Requested and Enacted Amounts)

Fiscal Year Requested Enacted Change

2016 n/a 149,487 n/a

2017 48,634 51,734 3,100

2018 4,500 4,500 —

2019 28,500 37,494 8,994

2020 155,172 155,199 27

2021 83,725 83,725 —

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Fiscal Year Requested Enacted Change

2022 19,000 25,000 6,000

2023 52,994 73,294 20,300

2024 209,741 243,699 33,958

2025 103,567

Source: CRS analysis of appropriations bills and reports. Note: Due to restructuring of appropriations accounts in FY2017, a comparable breakdown of Protection- specific activities is not possible for FY2016 or earlier.

Figure 5. USSS T otal Staffing

(As of the end of Fiscal Years 2008-2023)

Source: CRS Analysis of OPM Fedscope Data.

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Table 4. USSS T otal Staffing

(As of the end of Fiscal Years 2008-2023)

Fiscal Year

FedScope

Total

2008 6,579

2009 6,763

2010 6,913

2011 7,025

2012 6,761

2013 6,484

2014 6,338

2015 6,304

2016 6,415

2017 6,743

2018 7,191

2019 7,463

2020 7,526

2021 7,811

2022 7,788

2023 7,689

Source: CRS Analysis of OPM Fedscope Data.

U.S. Secret Service Protection Mission Funding and Staffing: Fact Sheet

Congressional Research Service R48129 · VERSION 7 · UPDATED 9

Author Information

Shawn Reese Analyst in Emergency Management and Homeland Security Policy

^{William L. Painter}

Specialist in Homeland Security and Appropriations

Disclaimer

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