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The arm of the Secret Service that protects presidents, vice presidents and their families is nearly 10% smaller than it was a decade ago despite warnings from Congress and a government watchdog that it needed to add agents or risk compromising its mission.
The latest congressional budget figures show that the employee head count assigned to protect the president and other senior officials and investigate threats against them dropped by roughly 350 staffers — down from 4,027 in fiscal 2014 to 3,671 in the current fiscal year.
At the same time, the number of people that Protective Operations had to protect grew and the potential threats it faced became more diverse. Today, the U.S. Secret Service faces chronic understaffing for its most high-profile roles and competition from the private sector, which routinely poaches agents for much higher-paying and less punishing jobs.