Director Joseph Clancy tells House committee ‘Right now we train on a parking lot, basically’ and cites US special forces which train for missions on scale models

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The director of the US secret service has described an elaborate plan to build an $8m replica of the White House in Maryland – complete with fountains, grass and shrubbery – to assist with agent training.

It was unclear whether the plan included a rose garden or a reproduction of the first lady’s vegetable garden.

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The secret service, the agency charged with protecting the life of the president, has come under fire in the last year in part for repeated security breaches at the White House. In one incident last September, an army veteran jumped the fence, crossed the yard and entered the building before being stopped. A second jumper a month later punched, kicked and body-slammed a dog.

Director Joseph Clancy, who has the task of building the secret service back after multiple public drunkenness scandals and a leadership overhaul, asked the House appropriations committee on Tuesday to support the construction of the fake White House.

“We feel that’s important,” Clancy said. “Right now we train on a parking lot, basically. We put up a makeshift fence and walk off the distance from the fence to the White House.

“We don’t have the bushes, we don’t have the fountains, we don’t have a realistic look of the White House. Even our canines, they’re responding on hard surfaces rather than grass.”

Clancy pointed out that US special forces, such as the team that went after Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, routinely practice their missions on scale models.

“That’s where we’d like to be,” Clancy said.

The $8m request raised the eyebrows of some budget hawks.

“Most folks don’t need an $8m training facility to learn how to lock the front door,” said Dan Holler, a spokesman for the conservative group Heritage Action.

“In all seriousness, though, the secret service request will come under tough scrutiny given our nation’s rapidly increasing debt and the agency’s numerous missteps over the past several years.”

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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 $8m 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 to be built around the actual White House, but it would take a year and a half. After the latest fence-jumping incident, 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.

“We recognize that that’s a long time to wait, a year and a half.”