Secret Service director tells agents: I am 'fighting' to get you paid
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Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles tells USA TODAY more than 1,000 agents have already hit the salary and overtime allowance meant to last the entire year.
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles assured agents that he is “fighting” to get more than 1,000 agents compensated for hundreds of hours they worked in overtime during the Trump administration.Â
As USA TODAY first reported on Monday, the Secret Service can no longer pay hundreds of agents who have already reached federally mandated caps on salary and overtime allowances, as the agency grapples with protecting a president who has spent almost every weekend in office visiting properties he owns on the East Coast and the 18-member first family’s frequent business trips and vacations.Â
In a memo sent to the agency’s 6,800 agents and officers, Alles said he was working with Congress on a “multi-year” plan that would raise the caps from $161,000 to $187,000.Â
“Getting legislation introduced and enacted in the current environment is a challenge to be sure,” Alles said in the memo sent Wednesday evening and obtained by USA TODAY. “But know that I am committed to fighting on your behalf every day to get this done.”
More: Exclusive: Secret Service depletes funds to pay agents because of Trump’s frequent travel, large family
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Following a contentious election season, which required agents to crisscross the country with both presidential campaigns, the crushing workload has not relented in the first seven months of the Trump administration.
Trump has traveled almost every weekend in office at his properties in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia. At the same time, business commitments and vacations take his adult children frequently across the country and overseas.Â
Under Trump, the service is protecting an unprecedented 42 officials, up from 31 during the Obama administration. The number includes 18 Trump family members.
In an interview last week, Alles acknowledged the president’s large family but added that there was “no flexibility” in the service’s mandated protective responsibility.
“I can’t change that,” he said.
Under the law, members of the president’s immediate family may decline protection. But the agency actively recommends against such action.Â
In the memo, Alles assured agents and officers that the service was not “out of money” to meet its other obligations. But he said the agency is focused on “achieving our primary goal of changing the law to ensure we can compensate eligible employees for protective services in excess of statutory pay caps.”
Republican and Democrat lawmakers already have signaled that they will support such action.Â
Last year, Congress had to approve a one-time fix to ensure that 1,400 agents would be compensated for thousands of hours of overtime earned above compensation limits.Â
More: Hundreds of Secret Service agents maxed out on overtime
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Alles’ proposal would seek to lift the caps for at least the duration of Trump’s first term, while a hiring campaign attempts to build out the ranks.
From its current force of 6,800 agents and uniformed officers, the goal is to reach 7,600 by 2019 and, ultimately, 9,500 by 2025. The infusion of personnel is expected to relieve current overtime requirements.   Â
“With Congress out of session this month, you may think that nothing much is happening. To the contrary,” Alles said in the memo. Agency officials, he said, are “working through the various details necessary to developing a bill.”
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Banke International director Niraj Masand, far left, poses for a photo with Eric Trump, second left, Banke International director Porush Jhunjhunwala, center, Donald Trump Jr., second right, and DAMAC Properties chairman Hussain Sajwani, during festivities marking the formal opening of the Trump International Golf Club, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Feb. 18, 2017. Two of U.S. President Trump’s sons arrived in the UAE for an invitation-only ceremony to formally open the club. Â
Left to right, Tiffany Trump, Eric Danziger, Datuk Tony Tiah, Datin Alicia Tiah, Joo Kim Tiah, CEO of the Holborn Group; Donald Trump Jr., his wife Vanessa Haydon, Eric Trump, and his wife Lara Yunaska cut the ribbon during a ceremony inaugurating the Trump International Hotel and tower in Vancouver, Canada, on Feb. 28, 2017.Â
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