Political Quotes

“I would like to speak briefly to the Department of Homeland Security's portion of the supplemental, which includes $6.8 million. The direct role of the Department of Homeland Security on January 6 was limited to the protection of Vice President Pence and Vice President-elect Harris. The Secret Service, like almost every other Federal agency, was insufficiently aware of open-source information that made clear the severity of the security threat on that day, and it failed to take seriously the threat information it was aware of. Through discussions with the Secret Service, we identified $6.8 million in funding requirements to address security deficiencies that were exposed on January 6, generally related to the protection of the White House complex and open-source intelligence collection and analysis. The total includes $2 million to reimburse the Secret Service for temporary anti-scale fencing used to expand the White House security perimeter beyond the permanent White House fence earlier this year. It included temporary fencing around Blair House while Vice President Harris resided there during needed repairs to the official Vice Presidential residence. This fencing was required by the heightened security posture associated with the Presidential transition. These costs were unanticipated, because the Secret Service is unable to budget for a Presidential transition following a sitting President's first term in office.…”