Norton Ideas Make Way Into White House Security Panel Report

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), a senior member of the House Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) Committee, today said the review of the Secret Service, compiled by the U.S. Secret Service Protective Mission Panel to the Secretary of Homeland Security, contains key recommendations that she pushed for earlier this year. The report called for raising the height of the White House perimeter fence, curved outward at the top and keeping with the historical aesthetic of the White House; changing the Secret Service's "insider" culture by bringing in an outside leader to run the agency; increasing the number of agents; and ensuring at least ten percent of an agent's time is devoted to training. These recommendations echo several ideas that Norton cited after an October OGR hearing laid bare the problems in the agency. However, Norton said she regretted that the report does not mention ensuring that security should take into account the need for public access to the White House front, as has been historically permitted.

"Most of these recommendations from the panel were readily apparent from the errors that the Secret Service hearing revealed," Norton said. "The most revealing, however, was a deficiency that the Secret Service was reluctant to admit and the OGR committee mostly failed to acknowledge – that the Secret Service was very significantly deficient in the number of personnel necessary to do the job. Under questioning, Secret Service Director Julia Pierson mentioned a deficiency in the number of agents. But the Secret Service itself has a history of not revealing any problems, including lack of personnel to do the job. This report lays out a recipe of corrections for an outside director to implement."

Norton said she particularly welcomed the recommendation for a director from outside the agency as a way to eliminate the culture where agents seemed to protect each other's errors from discovery. She cited the incident when bullets penetrated the outside of the White House residence, which the Secret Service first assumed was unrelated gang gunfire, but was later discovered by personnel within the White House as a direct shooting on the residence. She also cited an instance when a man made his way into an elevator with the President, and the incident was investigated by an agent's supervisor rather than reported to the agency's investigative unit. Those two incidences, Norton said, show an insider culture.

After the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, Norton worked with the White House and the National Park Service to maintain public access to the White House and surrounding area by widening E Street and keeping it accessible. However, following September 11, 2001, access on E Street was closed to the public. However, Norton worked with the White House to secure the opening of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House to ensure public access.