Chief of Secret Service works to get agents paid
Director campaigns to get caps on salary, overtime increased
Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles assured agents that he is “fighting” to get more than 1,000 agents compensated for hundreds of hours they have worked in overtime during the Trump administration.
As USA TODAY first reported Monday, the Secret Service can no longer pay hundreds of agents who reached federally mandated caps on salary and overtime allowances as the agency grapples with protecting a president who has spent almost every weekend in office visiting properties he owns on the East Coast, along with the 18- member first family’s frequent business trips and vacations.
In a memo sent to the agency’s 6,800 agents and officers, Alles said he was working with Congress on a “multiyear” plan that would raise the caps from $ 161,000 to $ 187,000.
“Getting legislation introduced and enacted in the current environment is a challenge to be sure,” Alles said in the memo sent Wednesday evening and obtained by USA TODAY. “But know that I am committed to fighting on your behalf every day to get this done.”
The crushing workload has not relented in the first seven months of the Trump administration.
Trump has traveled almost every weekend in office to his properties in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia. At the same time, business commitments and vacations take his adult children frequently across the country and overseas.
Under Trump, the service is protecting an unprecedented 42 officials, up from 31 during the Obama administration.
In the memo, Alles assured agents and officers that the service was not “out of money” to meet its other obligations. He said the agency is focused on achieving its primary goal “of changing the law to ensure we can compensate eligible employees for protective services in excess of statutory pay caps.”
Republican and Democratic lawmakers signaled that they would support such action.
Alles’ proposal seeks to lift the caps for at least the duration of Trump’s first term, while a hiring campaign attempts to build out the ranks. From the current force of 6,800 agents and uniformed officers, the goal is to reach 9,500 by 2025.