Cortez Masto, Grassley Renew Push for Secret Service Director to Become Senate-Confirmed Position

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced the bipartisan Providing Real Oversight and Transparency to Effectively Counter Threats (PROTECT) Act to ensure all future United States Secret Service (USSS) Directors are Senate confirmed and subject to a single, 10-year term. The Senate already confirms the heads of many federal law enforcement agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the U.S. Marshals Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (ATF), U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs & Border Protection (CBP).

"The men and women of the Secret Service have an incredible responsibility, and we must support them and their work," said Senator Cortez Masto. "Our bipartisan PROTECT Actwill make the Secret Service Director a Senate-confirmed position with a ten-year term, ensuring the same level of oversight as other federal law enforcement agencies while protecting against politicization."

"The Secret Service Director is responsible for a critical agency where life and death are at stake. This agency and its leadership require serious congressional oversight to ensure they're held to a very high standard, so that the failure we saw in Butler last year is never repeated. Our bipartisan PROTECT Act is a crucial step towards providing the American people the transparency and accountability they deserve from the Secret Service," said Senator Grassley.

Read the full bill here.

As the former top law enforcement official in Nevada, Senator Cortez Masto has been a leading advocate in the Senate for our police officers and is part of the Senate Law Enforcement Caucus. She has secured historic funding for the Byrne JAG grant program, the leading source of criminal justice funding in the country. Her bipartisan bills to combat the crisis of law enforcement suicide and provide mental health resources to police officers have been signed into law by presidents of both parties. Her BADGES for Native Communities Act to support the Bureau of Indian Affairs with law enforcement recruitment and retention passed the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

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