Whenever former President Donald Trump comes to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, it’s Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield)’s 7th congressional district that he’s visiting. And according to Kean, those visits frequently require the use of local government security resources and personnel, often with no reimbursement from the Secret Service.
That would change under a bill Kean introduced today, the Presidential Security Resources Reimbursement Act, which authorizes the Secret Service to pay back state and local governments for the local resources it uses – rather than forcing towns like Bedminster to shoulder the costs themselves.
“The Secret Service can fully accomplish their mission when they have robust partnerships with local law enforcement agencies,” Kean said in a statement. “Currently, a significant amount of that partnership is funded by small-town taxpayers and local budgets. I wrote this commonsense legislation to ensure that adequate resources are readily available to supplement each and every security plan.”
The functionings of the Secret Service have, of course, come under massively increased scrutiny this summer following the attempted assassination of Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania last month. While some details of that shooting are still murky, a lack of proper communication between the Secret Service and local law enforcement has been cited as a key factor in the security breakdown that let the shooter nearly succeed.
The assassination attempt caused the Secret Service to request increased security measures at public events, which in turn might lead to a greater financial burden on towns like Bedminster (and on any New Jersey town that Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris chooses to visit during the next few months of the presidential campaign).
Somerset County Commission Director Shanel Robinson (D-Franklin), a Democrat whose jurisdiction includes Bedminster, said that she’s “fully on board” with Kean’s plan.
“Somerset County is always ready to support the Secret Service when needed to protect a President or other dignitary, and understands the vital role local law enforcement and first responders play,” Robinson said. “Mobilizing at the levels required, however, often comes at significant fiscal cost to local governments and we are fully on board with this legislation to authorize reimbursements to local law enforcement for their patriotic services.”