Democrats and Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee want answers from the Secret Service about recent security breaches involving President Obama and the White House.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and the top Democrat on the panel, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, sent a letter to the agency Thursday, expressing “grave concerns about the policies, procedures and judgment of the United States Secret Service.”
The Secret Service has been the subject of intense criticism in recent weeks after a man scaled the White House fence and made it far inside the mansion. More security breaches were revealed in the media, including a Washington Examiner report that a gun-carrying security contractor with a criminal record was allowed into an elevator with President Obama.
“As members of the committee of primary jurisdiction over many of the Secret Service’s functions, including its critical role in protecting the president and the White House complex, we are deeply concerned with the Service’s ability to effectively identify, intercept and disrupt threats to the president of the United States,” Goodlatte and Conyers wrote in the letter, which was signed by others on the committee.
The letter seeks answers to 13 questions involving the Secret Service, including why the North Portico door to the White House was unlocked on Sept. 19, when Omar Gonzalez used it to enter the White House.
The lawmakers also want to know how the agency screens security contractors and how the armed security contractor was allowed in the elevator with the president on Sept. 16, when Obama was visiting Atlanta.
The letter does not address new reports linking a White House aide to a 2012 prostitution scandal involving Secret Service agents in Cartagena, Colombia.
