(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
By DAVID ROGERS
First came the White House fence jumpers. Now it’s Congress, fencing off money for the embattled Secret Service because of a totally unrelated fight with President Barack Obama over immigration.
Just last Thursday, an independent review panel warned that the Service is already stretched thin and “in many cases, beyond its limits.” Training has “diminished far below acceptable levels” the panel found, and “under any scenario, the Service has to increase significantly in size.”
Before the Homeland CR runs out, Republicans can count on being fully in charge of Congress. Their immediate target is the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the office within Homeland that will implement Obama’s order including the issuance of temporary work permits for qualified individuals who come forward.
Ironically enough, USCIS is largely self-funded, living off the fees it collects and not the relatively small share of annual appropriations it gets from Congress. By contrast, the Secret Service is wholly dependent on appropriations and now caught in the political crossfire.