Secret Service Has Enough Funding To Perform Duties Through September

President Donald Trump, his longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller, left, and two Secret Service agents walk along the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, June 12, 2017, following a ceremony where the pre... President Donald Trump, his longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller, left, and two Secret Service agents walk along the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, June 12, 2017, following a ceremony where the president honored the 2016 NCAA Football National Champions Clemson University Tigers. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) MORE LESS
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The Secret Service announced Monday it has enough funding to protect President Donald Trump, his administration and 18 of Trump’s family members through the end of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

The announcement came after USA Today reported Monday that the agency has already met the cap for salary and overtime work that was supposed to last the whole year, for over 1,000 of its agents.

The strain is due in part to the size of Trump’s family and how much they travel, USA Today reported.

The Secret Service provides protection for 42 people under Trump, including 18 members of his family. Former President Barack Obama had 31 people under Secret Service’s protection.

The Secret Service has the funding it needs to meet all current mission requirements for the remainder of the fiscal year and compensate employees for overtime within statutory pay caps. The Secret Service estimates that roughly 1,100 employees will work overtime hours in excess of statutory pay caps during calendar year 2017. Our agency experienced a similar situation in calendar year 2016 that resulted in legislation that allowed Secret Service employees to exceed statutory caps on pay,” Director Randolph “Tex” Alles said in a statement released Monday.

He said the department is working with the Department of Homeland Security, the administration and Congress to come up with a “legislative” solution.

Alles has been in talks with some lawmakers about raising the federally mandated salary and overtime compensation cap for agents from $160,000 a year to $187,000, USA Today reported.

The department is also hoping to hire more agents over the next several years to remedy the federal salary and overtime cap mandate. 

Alles combatted USA Today’s reporting, saying the issue is larger than the fact that Trump has a big family that likes to travel. The agency has had issues retaining staff for “nearly a decade.”

“This issue is not one that can be attributed to the current Administration’s protection requirements alone, but rather has been an ongoing issue for nearly a decade due to an overall increase in operational tempo,” he said.

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