U.S. Secret Service agents stand on the tarmac as Air Force One arrives in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Feb. 10. | Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo Secret Service director cleans up comments on Trump travel demands

The head of the U.S. Secret Service appeared to engage in some damage control on Monday, clarifying in a statement that the stresses placed on the agency by the travel habits and large size of President Donald Trump’s family are nothing new.

In an interview with USA Today published earlier Monday, Director Randolph "Tex" Alles had said Trump and his family's travel had stretched the Secret Service’s budget so thin that the agency would not be able to pay some agents for work already completed.


“The president has a large family, and our responsibility is required in law,'' Alles told the newspaper. "I can't change that. I have no flexibility.''

Later on Monday, Alles issued a statement via a spokesman saying, "This issue is not one that can be attributed to the current Administration’s protection requirements, but rather has been an ongoing issue for nearly a decade due to an overall increase in operational tempo."

With the United Nations General Assembly — one of the Secret Service’s most taxing events — looming next month, roughly one-third of Secret Service agents have already hit the congressionally mandated combined compensation limit for salary and overtime. "Normally, we are not this tapped out,'' Alles said in the USA Today interview of the Secret Service’s responsibilities for the upcoming U.N. meeting in New York.

Under the Trump administration, the Secret Service protects 42 people, 11 more than were under protection during the administration of President Barack Obama. Trump’s regular weekend jaunts to his clubs in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia have proved to be taxing on the Secret Service’s budget, as has the business and leisure travel, much of it international, of his family members.

In his later statement, Alles said the Secret Service has sufficient funding to “meet all current mission requirements” through the remainder of the fiscal year. He said roughly 1,100 Secret Service employees are expected to hit their compensation cap for 2017, a situation similar to 2016.

Congress was forced to override those overtime limits in 2016, when hundreds of agents maxed out in the fall after months of major campaign events for the candidates and their families, including two national party conventions. Last year, more than 1,000 agents had hit their limits in October — two months later than this year.

This year, lawmakers already earmarked roughly $60 million in extra cash for Secret Service, as part of a bipartisan spending deal reached this spring. Much of the money was devoted to protecting Trump and his family in their frequent travels between the White House and Trump Tower in Manhattan during the transition.

Under federal policy, agents’ combined salary and overtime pay is capped at $160,300 per year.

Secret Service officials launched a hiring campaign in 2015, after a congressional watchdog report found its staff levels at its lowest numbers in a decade.

Alles told USA Today that he has been in touch with congressional leaders from both parties about raising the compensation limit for agents, a fix that could still leave more than 100 veteran agents going unpaid for hours already worked. To reduce the stress on individual agents, Alles said the Secret Service has sought to hire and increase staff, but still “I don't see this changing in the near term.”

"We have them working all night long; we're sending them on the road all of the time,'' Alles told USA Today. "There are no quick fixes, but over the long term, I've got to give them a better balance [of work and private life] here."