Secret Service "severely damaged" by recent scandals, director says

The Secret Service has been "severely damaged" by security lapses and public scandals over the last several years, acting Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy acknowledged Wednesday, briefing a congressional panel on the steps being taken to "restore operational excellence" to the embattled agency.

Clancy's appearance before the House Judiciary Committee came roughly a week after the release of a Department of Homeland Security report on a September 19 security breach at the White House. The report found that a number of training, communication, and operational errors enabled a man to jump the White House fence and make his way into the interior of the executive mansion before being apprehended by agents.

"I read the report. I found the findings devastating," Clancy said Wednesday, in his first public comments on the White House security lapses since he took over the Secret Service. "What hits the hardest is the range of shortcomings that allowed Gonzales to enter the White House unencumbered."

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, the committee chairman, said the report uncovered a "laundry list" of errors during the September 19 breach. Among other mistakes, the report found that one of the agents on duty was on a personal phone call when the report of a fence jumper came over the radio. The report also found that another agent, believing Gonzales unarmed and the White House doors locked, did not impede the intruder's progress. The doors were unlocked and Gonzales, carrying a knife, was able to enter the White House.

"Failure of this magnitude," Clancy told lawmakers, "requires immediate action and longer term reform."

The acting director described a new training regimen being provided to officers and said he's working to ensure all Secret Service officers assigned to the White House receive that new training before the end of the year.

He also said he's working to improve communication between officers and supervisors to encourage personnel to pass concerns about security, training, and preparedness up the food chain without fear of blowback.

Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, joked that Gonzalez "got further into the White House than many of my Republican colleagues have ever gotten," and he asked Clancy whether a moat along the perimeter of the White House would provide an effective additional deterrent to intruders.

"It may be," Clancy said, adding that "perhaps a higher fence" would accomplish the same thing.

Clancy, the former head of the president's protective detail, was pulled out of retirement and named acting director after the September 19 incident forced the ouster of his predecessor, Julia Pierson.

At Wednesday's hearing, Clancy also addressed several other high-profile mistakes made by the Secret Service in recent years.

In 2011, after a gunman fired several shots at the White House, a Secret Service supervisor, unaware that several bullets had hit the White House, did issue a "stand down" order, Clancy confirmed. He added that several agents heard noises that sounded like gunshots and took up "defensive positions" around the White House in response.

Agents identified the vehicle of the gunman, Oscar Ortega-Hernandez, within five minutes of the incident, Clancy said, and they identified the gunman himself later that day. Within a few days, a warrant had been issued for Ortega-Hernandez's arrest.

Earlier this year, the Secret Service came under fire after a report that a private security contractor with a criminal background was armed during an elevator ride with President Obama at the Centers for Disease Control.

Clancy described that incident as "a break in our procedures," explaining, "Only sworn law enforcement officials should be in close proximity to the president who are armed."

Preventing a similar incident in the future, Clancy said, is "not a matter of necessarily changing policies, but more of an indication that we need to do better training."

Several of the committee's Democrats, including Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, probed Clancy on the impact of recent sequestration budget cuts on the agency's staffing, training, and morale.

Clancy acknowledged that a "severe drop-off" in funding during 2012 and 2013 took a toll on the agency, cutting into training resources and forcing fewer agents to shoulder a greater burden of responsibility by sacrificing vacation time and time off.

The director said his agents work "extremely hard," but he added that their morale and training were hurt by the budget cuts.

"When we're not properly trained," he warned, "we fail."

Clancy acknowledged that additional funding levied by Congress in 2014 enabled the Secret Service to hire 238 additional personnel.

After the conclusion of the public portion of the hearing on Wednesday, Clancy and the lawmakers on the panel were scheduled to reconvene in a closed session to discuss more sensitive law-enforcement matters.