WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. lawmaker on Thursday questioned Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson's choice of a veteran agent to lead the U.S. Secret Service and said the agency that protects the American president needs to be cleaned up.
Representative Hal Rogers, the Appropriations Committee chairman, referred to a string of Secret Service security lapses and embarrassments, most recently the March 4 breach of a White House security barrier by agents returning from a party.
"That agency needs discipline. We all have the highest of regard and respect for the Secret Service. However some agents are tarnishing that image. And it needs to be cleaned up," Rogers, a Republican, said at an appropriations subcommittee budget hearing.
Rogers questioned the choice of Joseph Clancy, a 27-year veteran of the Secret Service, as its director, citing an independent panel's recommendation that the new director be picked from outside the agency, which it described as insular.
Johnson said he had confidence in Clancy's ability to reform the agency, saying that, as acting director, he made tough senior personnel decisions affecting people he had known for years.
"I have a lot of confidence in Joe to straighten the organization out," Johnson said. "Change does not happen overnight."
Johnson said a new chief operating officer position would be filled with an outsider.
Secret Service Director Julia Pierson stepped down in October after a Sept. 19 White House breach in which a man carrying a knife jumped the fence and ran into the executive mansion. President Barack Obama and his family were not there at the time.
The latest incident, in which two agents drove into a barrier near the White House, is still being investigated.
"What I know about that incident so far ... makes me very upset. Especially given the prior string of incidents," Johnson said.