One way to repair the Secret Service is to bring in a director from outside the agency who would try to overcome its insular culture,
USA Today reported.
"If you are going to change the culture, you're going to have to bring someone from the outside, that has to happen,'' said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who is a leading voice calling for change.
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, acknowledges that an outsider would find it easier to make changes. "I think a person who has been part of an organization, who has established friendships within that organization — it would be harder for that person to say to a former colleague, 'we no longer need your services,'" USA Today reported.
Julia Pierson, who resigned after a series of security lapses — mostly recently Sept. 19, when an intruder made it deep into the White House — that called into question how well the service was protecting President Barack Obama, had been appointed only 18 months ago.
Her selection came in the
aftermath of revelations about a 2012 incident in which agents assigned to the presidential detail while Obama was attending a summit in Colombia were implicated in a prostitution scandal, and a similar incident in El Salvador a year earlier.
A review of the agency's operations ordered by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is scheduled to be finished by Dec. 15. The assessment might also produce recommendations for candidates to take over the service.
A separate report due Nov. 1 will try to identify what went wrong in the Sept. 19 breach, according to USA Today.
Both Cummings and Chaffetz said it was time to rethink whether the Secret Service should focus exclusively on its protective mission and turn over battling financial crime to some other agency.
"When it comes to the protection of the first family, this is one mission that can never, ever fail,'' Chaffetz told USA Today.
The retired former head of its presidential protection division, Joseph Clancy, has been brought back to serve as the service's interim director.
The agency was founded in 1865 as part of the Treasury Department and is now part of Homeland Security.
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