The United States Secret Service (USSS) is tasked with a zero-failure mission: to protect the President and other protectees at all costs. For most of its existence, USSS has strived to complete that mission while simultaneously garnering the respect and admiration of the American people. Secret Service agents and officers earned a reputation as stoic and impervious guardians of our government's most important leaders. The American public's respect for the agency diminished following the April 2012 prostitution scandal in Cartagena, Colombia, which attracted significant media attention and...

The Committee held a hearing on May 8, 2013, entitled, "Benghazi: Exposing Failure and Recognizing Courage." Not only did the testimony of three State Department officials-Mark Thompson, Eric Nordstrom, and Gregory Hicks- provide important information to Committee Members about the fateful attacks, it raised additional questions about the attacks as well as the ARB's work. In light of these questions, the Committee initiated a comprehensive investigation of the ARB procedures, findings, and recommendations. Understanding how the ARB reached its conclusions informs the Committee's interest in...

TSA: security gaps: hearing before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, first session, November 3, 2015.