Secret Service wants $8mn to build White House replica for training
Hawaii Telegraph Wednesday 18th March, 2015
• Among the security lapses last year was of a knife-wielding man who managed to make his way into the mansion before he was nabbed.
• Clancy said the agency needs the training facility in Beltsville, about 20 miles from the real executive mansion, to provide agents and officers more realistic training experience.
• Clancy also said the secret service was currently making plans for a new fence around the White House
WASHINGTON - In the line of fire after a series of embarrassing security lapses last year, the US Secret Service has said it wants $8 million to build a White House replica in Beltsville, Maryland, to train its agents.
The beleaguered agency's director Joseph Clancy told lawmakers the fake executive mansion would provide agents and officers a more realistic training experience.
Among the security lapses last year was how a knife-wielding man managed to sprint across the White House lawn and make his way into the mansion before he was nabbed.
The Secret Service is the agency charged with protecting the life of the president.
Clancy told the House Appropriations subcommittee that the agency needs the training facility in Beltsville, about 20 miles from the real executive mansion, to provide agents and officers more realistic training experience.
He said the training is currently done in a parking lot which does not have the bushes and fountains as the White House grounds do.
"Right now, we train on a parking lot, basically," Clancy said. "We put up a makeshift fence and walk off the distance between the fence at the White House and the actual house itself. We don't have the bushes, we don't have the fountains, we don't get a realistic look at the White House."
Clancy added, "It's important to have a true replica of what the White House is so we can do a better job of this integrated training between our uniform division officers, our agents and our tactical teams."
The proposed replica would provide the agents, according to Clancy's prepared testimony, a "more realistic environment, conducive to scenario-based training exercises," for instructing those who must protect the president's home.
It would mimic the facade of the White House residence, the East and West Wings, guard booths, and the surrounding grounds and roads.
Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Texas, said he was unsure about the price tag for the prospective fake White House. "You're going to build an $8 million White House for training?" Cuellar said. "I have concerns about that."
Clancy also said the Secret Service was currently making plans for a new fence around the White House, but it would take a year and a half. After the latest fence-jumping incident by an intruder, the agency added a second, low, outer-ring fence around the main fence.
The new plan calls for "putting something on top of the fence that will deter people from climbing and prevent them from getting over", Clancy said.
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