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Norton Says Independent Secret Service Panel Can Restore Loss of Agency Stature

October 1, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that she appreciates United States Secret Service Director Pierson's 30 years of service to the Secret Service and our country, after the Director resigned today. Norton, who at yesterday's House hearing called for a top to bottom review and makeover of the Secret Service to bring the agency into the 21st century, said, "Equally important to me is Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson's action in establishing an independent panel to evaluate the Secret Service itself. I agree with Secretary Johnson's priority on securing the White House, the President and the First Family first, but the Secretary's action in establishing an independent panel to assess the agency is indispensable to ensure that the Secret Service is not fighting ‘the last war.' With domestic and international terrorists and, most recently, ISIL, the mission of the Secret Service has changed before the agency itself has been transformed. The success of a mentally ill veteran in getting deep into the White House could be a dress rehearsal for a coordinated attack by a terrorist commando group. The Secret Service is, by structure and culture, the agency it always was with episodic changes here and there. Its problems are deeper than personnel at the top. I am not aware that the agency has ever had a top to bottom review. The only way to protect the President and the White House is to look beyond the missteps in recent years and give independent investigators a free hand to do a top to bottom review that alone can renew our confidence in the agency."

After the panel is established, Norton also will seek to ensure that it is mindful of the need to balance public access to areas such as the White House perimeter as a necessary ingredient of American life and democracy.