House Republicans want female Secret Service agents to meet the same fitness standards as men, in their first legislative effort since the failed assassination of Donald Trump.
Republican lawmakers this week introduced a bill to implement “sex-neutral” aptitude tests in the service and require female officers to be on par with their male counterparts.
This comes amid fears that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies led to female officers being ill-equipped to work at the Pennsylvania rally where a 20-year-old sniper shot and grazed former President Trump.
This also comes after Secret Service chief Kimberly Cheatle resigned Tuesday under pressure from Republicans and Democrats over the July 13 failures.
Cheatle had pushed for women to fill 30 percent of Secret Service positions by 2030, where they are subject to less rigorous fitness evaluations than men.
Critics say the female Secret Service agents were not tall enough to protect Trump from further bullets.
Secret Service chief Kimberly Cheatle resigned Tuesday after facing questioning over security lapses at the rally and her diversity hiring quotas.
Josh Brecheen, the Oklahoma Republican sponsoring the bill, says it’s time to scrap DEI initiatives at a service that protects presidents, vice presidents, former presidents, candidates and family members.
“We need our Secret Service agents to be fully prepared and trained to do their jobs,” Brecheen said.
“What happened at the rally, where a shooter was allowed to come within 150 yards of President Trump, can never happen again.”
The Secret Service Readiness Act, he added, is just a “starting point” and much more needs to be done to bring the service “back in line with its mission.”
Much more needs to be done in the days and weeks ahead, but we hope this legislation will be a good starting point to get our U.S. Secret Service back on track with its mission.
Trump, 78, was holding a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a key state in the Nov. 5 election, when shots rang out, hitting him in the right ear and leaving his face covered in blood.
One person in the crowd was killed and two others were injured before officers fatally shot the suspect, a 20-year-old man with an AR-15-style rifle who got close enough to shoot Trump from a nearby rooftop.
Analysts have analyzed videos of the shooting and highlighted flaws in the Secret Service equipment protecting the Republican.
In addition to the obvious flaw of not closing off the rooftop that the shooter used, they highlighted how some female officers at the rally were not big enough or skilled enough to adequately protect Trump.
Analysts have analysed footage of the botched assassination and of female officers appearing confused and unable to handle weapons.
Female Secret Service recruits don’t need to be as fit as their male counterparts to become agents.
Oklahoma Republican Josh Brecheen says it’s time to eliminate DEI schemes in the Secret Service
The female agent was used in an Internet meme about how diverse hiring had weakened the Secret Service.
Other online pundits suggested the female officers were more interested in saving themselves than protecting the former president.
An officer who rushed to surround Trump certainly acted bravely, but at just 5’5″ she was unable to protect the 6’3″ former president.
As Trump was led into a getaway vehicle, a female Secret Service agent was seen fumbling for her gun, unable to find the holster, while other women appeared confused and frightened in the crisis.
The new Secret Service bill seeks to address perceived shortcomings of female field agents by holding male and female applicants to the same standards when applying for jobs with the agency.
According to Secret Service entrance exams, female candidates only have to meet lower fitness standards than men for doing push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and running the mile.
The bill would require the Secret Service to establish “sex-neutral fitness” standards that are no lower than current requirements for male applicants or those for current agents and officers.
If approved, the service would have to change the rules within 90 days and report on its success 180 days later.
The bill has reportedly garnered support from nearly a dozen Republican co-sponsors, but it remains unclear whether it could gain enough traction to become law.
Cheatle said he took responsibility for security failures at the rally and resigned Tuesday under bipartisan pressure.
On Monday, House lawmakers grilled her about her failures and her diversity-based hiring quotas. She said the attempted assassination of Trump had “nothing to do with diversity.”