By NICHOLAS FANDOS THE NEW YORK TIMES APRIL 12, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/us/politics/secret-service-protection-washington.html?_r=1
The Diplomatic Security Service of the State Department protects Nikki R. Haley, the United States ambassador to the United Nations. The service also provides protection for visiting foreign dignitaries. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — In a city obsessed with the trappings of power, they are the ultimate status symbol: the wire-wearing, black S.U.V.-driving protective crews that come with high-level government service.
So when it came to light last week that the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, had ordered the United States Marshals Service to extend a full protective detail to Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, for as much as $1 million a month, many people began to wonder about the protective pecking order in the Trump era.
The answer, given the nature of the job, is difficult to know. Security forces are loath to discuss much about who they protect or what it costs, for fear, they say, of compromising their mission.
But when the billionaire Wilbur L. Ross Jr., the commerce secretary, goes to dinner at a fancy Georgetown restaurant, bodyguards sit nearby. When members of Congress practice in the early mornings in an Alexandria, Va., public park for their Congressional Baseball Game, plainclothes United States Capitol Police are sitting there in a black S.U.V. The secretary of the Interior Department, who rode a horse to his first day at work, turns to the United States Park Police, better known for patrolling the nation’s national parks, often on horseback. Protecting top government officials, from the president to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, involves a patchwork of more than a dozen federal agencies and offices.
It may be easier to ask who in Washington does not have a protective detail. But it is possible, based on public records, news accounts and interviews with security officials, to sketch the rough outlines.
A Secret Service agent at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s Florida resort. The Secret Service protects the president and vice president and their families. It is responsible for the White House chief of staff, the president’s national security adviser, the secretaries of Homeland Security and Treasury, former presidents and occasionally others. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times
Here is what we found.
The Model of Them All
If not all security details are created equal, most aim to imitate the Secret Service. Created in the 1860s to combat rampant currency counterfeiting, the agency has evolved into the government’s best-known protective force, charged with safeguarding the White House and many of its occupants. So famous are the Secret Service’s special agents that most other federal protection forces are confused for them.
But in reality, the agency protects only a small percentage of the government’s very top officials. In addition to the president, vice president and their families, the agency is responsible for the White House chief of staff, the president’s national security adviser, the secretaries of Homeland Security and Treasury, former presidents and occasionally others designated by the president.
The agency has been marred by several scandals in recent years and is struggling to keep up with a large and globe-trotting first family. But with a multibillion-dollar budget and thousands of agents and uniformed officers, it is still considered to be the model.
People with National Security Secrets
For most of the rest of the federal government, protection is usually an in-house affair. Over the years, most departments have either created special offices to handle the task or turned to existing ones that may already have law enforcement responsibilities.
Specially trained agents from the Justice Department’s F.B.I. provide constant protection for Mr. Sessions and James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director. Mr. Sessions usually flies on a private government-provided plane as well.
At the C.I.A., highly trained and carefully selected agency officers protect its director with a constant presence, even setting up quarters within or near the director’s home. Like the attorney general, the director travels on a government-provided jet.
And at the Defense Department, special agents from the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command ensure that the secretary, Jim Mattis, is kept safe domestically and as he travels the world visiting bases and installations.
Matters of State
The protective services budgets of even those agencies are tiny compared with that of the State Department, which must protect the country’s diplomats.
That begins back home with the secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, who receives round-the-clock protection wherever he is by the department’s Diplomatic Security Service, according to Aaron M. Testa, a State Department spokesman.
But the group’s work goes well beyond the secretary. It also protects Nikki R. Haley, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, who is based in New York. Its almost 2,000 agents, who are members of the United States Foreign Service, also help provide protection for visiting foreign dignitaries. In 2015, the last year for which there are full records, it formed 195 such protective details, Mr. Testa said.
The service, which has officials in American embassies around the world, also plays a significant supporting role in protecting American officials when they travel. So-called regional security officers help the Secret Service and other protective teams with advance work for foreign travel.
Where Costs Are Increasing
In February, in her first public outing as education secretary, protesters heckled Mrs. DeVos and tried to bar her entry to a Washington middle school. After that incident, and at Mr. Sessions’s request, the Marshals Service assessed that there was a threat to her safety, according to Nikki Credic-Barrett, a spokeswoman. Mrs. DeVos was granted protection by the service, a Justice Department agency typically used, among myriad other duties, to protect Supreme Court justices traveling outside of Washington.
A member of the United States Capitol Police force on Capitol Hill. Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times The Education Department will pay the service up to $8 million through the end of September, Ms. Credic-Barrett said. The arrangement was first reported by The Washington Post.
Expanded security appears to be in the offing at the Environmental Protection Agency, as well, where administrators have traditionally received door-to-door security. In recent weeks, though, the agency has requested funds to add 10 full-time staff members to form a 24-hour security detail for its current administrator, Scott Pruitt, budget documents show.
Both Mrs. DeVos and Mr. Pruitt were subject to vocal and widespread protests during the nomination process. They are spending more on security despite their departments being targeted for some of the deepest cuts in Mr. Trump’s first budget proposal.
Whether they are an exception, or part of a larger trend toward more protection across the board, is difficult to determine. Protection costs are often buried within departmental budget requests, making them hard to separate from other security costs.
But the last time the issue was studied by the Government Accountability Office, in 2000, it found that personnel from 27 different agencies were protecting 42 different positions, often with little coordination or standardized training.
Even the Agriculture Department
Many departments have offices more narrowly directed to handle security. Elaine L. Chao, the transportation secretary, is watched over by a special division of the department’s Office of Intelligence, Security and Emergency Response. (Ms. Chao’s husband, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, receives constant protection by the Capitol Police because he is the majority leader.)
A protective detail for the agriculture secretary, who has yet to be confirmed, falls under the department’s Office of the Secretary. And Ben Carson, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, has a detail of department employees that accompanies him to events and on official travel.
Personnel from a special Department of Veterans Affairs office protect David J. Shulkin, its secretary, during travel, public events and visits, and also provide transportation to and from work. The size of the protective detail varies with perceived threats, but usually occupies two cars.
Others are more tight-lipped about their arrangements.
“Disparate resources are used to protect from the disruption an attack on government could cause,” said John S. Czwartacki, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget. “However, I won’t reveal those protective measures here. Bad guys read The Times, too.”
