Congress paying for protection as 2012 campaign heats up

House Republicans moved this week to give the Secret Service $113 million as the agency prepares to ramp up its protection of 2012 presidential candidates.

The Secret Service could not say whether any of the handful of official GOP candidates are already receiving its protection, but Republican contenders have been signaling their presidential intentions for months and the agency is readying its security forces for an expensive election season.

The early funding indicates a push by the Secret Service to guard against a similar situation to the 2008 presidential election when requests for protection came much sooner that expected from candidates and the agency was forced to reassign hundreds of agents to accommodate them.

{mosads}Then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) requested and began receiving protection from the Secret Service in May, 2007, the earliest of any previously unprotected candidate.

The $113 million in additional funding makes up a majority of the overall $155 million increase that the Secret Service would receive under the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee’s budget released this week. The other money would be devoted to increasing the agency’s cybersecurity and threat assessment capabilities.

“A lot of factors go into determining our campaign budget needs, such as the number of candidates, the duration of protection which is allotted to them, and also the frequency of travel,” Secret Service spokesman Max Milien told The Hill. “Based upon our projections we sufficiently feel that we are fully funded for this 2012 presidential campaign.”

Millen said that if presidential candidates travel more than expected, the Secret Service may have to ask Congress, through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), for more money.

“If additional funding is required, we will go through DHS to acquire these additional funds,” he said. “We can’t allow our budget to interfere with our ability to provide protection to our protectees.”

Last year, the Secret Service requested $14 million for preliminary equipment purchases for 2012 presidential candidate protection.

To get Secret Service protection before an election, a candidate must request it and get the approval of the Homeland Security Secretary, who must first consult with an advisory committee consisting of the Speaker and Minority Leader of the House and the Senate Majority and Minority Leaders.

In this year’s budget, Obama requested $1.69 billion for the Secret Service, an increase of $180 million over fiscal year 2011’s appropriation of $1.51 billion to the Secret Service. Republicans this week opted to give the protection agency a total of $1.67 billion.

The majority of that money goes to pay for the protection of Obama, Biden, their families, the 15 White House cabinet members, previous presidents and vice presidents and their families, and visiting foreign dignitaries. Domestic field operations and management costs make up the two other highest-cost areas.

The agency received $1.48 billion in fiscal year 2010. And in fiscal year 2009, it received $1.51 billion, some of which – $41 million – was appropriated for protecting Obama and Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) in the final months of the 2008 presidential campaign.