U.S. Marshals Service spending millions on DeVos security in unusual arrangement

[demmiblue]

Source: NBC News

WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos began receiving around-the-clock security from the U.S. Marshals Service days after being confirmed, an armed detail provided to no other cabinet member that could cost U.S. taxpayers $19.8 million through September of 2019, according to new figures provided by the Marshals Service to NBC News.

While it remains unclear who specifically made the request, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions granted the protection on February 13, 2017, a few days after DeVos was heckled and blocked by a handful of protesters from entering the Jefferson Academy, a public middle school in Washington. DeVos was confirmed as education secretary on February 7 of that year.

"The order was issued after the Department of Education contacted administration officials regarding threats received by the Secretary of Education," the Justice Department said in a statement. "The U.S.M.S. was identified to assist in this area based on its expertise and long experience providing executive protection."

The cost of security provided to DeVos was $5.3 million in fiscal year 2017 and $6.8 million for fiscal year 2018, according to the Marshals Service — an amount that is ultimately reimbursed by the Education Department. The estimated cost for fiscal year 2019 is $7.74 million.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/u-s-marshals-service-spending-millions-devos-security-unusual-arrangement-n909001

[UpInArms]

1. Getting rid of all of these grifters

Is going to save our country... in a multitude of ways ...

This entire maladminstration is bankrupting us ... from Price to Zinke to the hideous Trump family and on and on ....

I guess those stupid evangelicals who think their godless pastors Ned to live in mansions and fly private jets are all good with grifters ...

[underpants]

2. Well spitballs and noogies ARE a concern when you work in schools

[joshdawg]

3. She needs to be heckled completely

out of the country. She's as incompetent as the HPOS that is stinking up the White House.

[Judi Lynn]

4. This is hideous. So glad it's not a secret any longer. Thank you, demmiblue. n/t

[PatSeg]

5. You'd think that someone who owns a dozen yachts

could afford her own security.

[dalton99a]

6. +1

[neohippie]

7. Her brother runs a private security firm

Why doesn't she pay for her own security, her brother runs a company full of people qualified to protect her

[melm00se]

9. It might be

because the US Marshal Service can go places private security can't.

[neohippie]

10. curiously

Why do no other cabinet members have this kind of security, and why would it even be necessary, and is she flying on commercial flights?

[csziggy]

12. Far too many federal head officer holders get protection

A Who’s Who List of Agencies Guarding the Powerful
By Nicholas Fandos April 12, 2017

<SNIP>
But when the billionaire Wilbur L. Ross Jr., the commerce secretary, goes to dinner at a fancy Georgetown restaurant, bodyguards sit nearby. When members of Congress practice in the early mornings in an Alexandria, Va., public park for their Congressional Baseball Game, plainclothes United States Capitol Police are sitting there in a black S.U.V.

The secretary of the Interior Department (Zinke), who rode a horse to his first day at work, turns to the United States Park Police, better known for patrolling the nation’s national parks, often on horseback. Protecting top government officials, from the president to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, involves a patchwork of more than a dozen federal agencies and offices.

<SNIP>

Expanded security appears to be in the offing at the Environmental Protection Agency, as well, where administrators have traditionally received door-to-door security. In recent weeks, though, the agency has requested funds to add 10 full-time staff members to form a 24-hour security detail for its current administrator, Scott Pruitt, budget documents show.

<SNIP>

But the last time the issue was studied by the Government Accountability Office, in 2000, it found that personnel from 27 different agencies were protecting 42 different positions, often with little coordination or standardized training.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/us/politics/secret-service-protection-washington.html

[Racerdog1]

8. Scamway Queen

Professionals at scams. Look no further than the ponzi scam that is Amway.

[MineralMan]

11. Fire Her Ass and Save Money!

Simple.