WASHINGTON – The House voted Wednesday to form a task force to investigate security failures surrounding the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
The vote highlights bipartisan outrage over the shooting at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump was just inches away from losing his life. One rally participant was killed and two others seriously injured. Lawmakers responded quickly with hearings and widespread calls for accountability.
The legislation passed by a vote of 416-0.
“Protecting the safety of our nation’s leaders is a responsibility that transcends party lines,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
The task force will be made up of 13 members and is expected to include seven Republicans and six Democrats. You will be tasked with determining what went wrong on the day of the assassination attempt and will make recommendations to prevent future security breaches. It will issue a final report before December 13 and will have the authority to issue subpoenas.
The bill is sponsored by Republican Rep. Mike Kelly, whose hometown of Butler was the site of the shooting. Kelly was at the rally with his wife and other family members.
“I can tell you my community is grieving,” Kelly said. “They are shocked by what happened in our backyard. The people of Butler and the people of the United States deserve answers.”
He said he was concerned when the rally location was chosen because he thought it would be “a difficult place to hold a rally of this size.” He called the task force an opportunity to build Americans’ confidence that lawmakers can work together to address a crisis.
House committees have already held three hearings focusing on the shooting. Director of the Secret Service Kimberly Cheatle resigned Tuesday, the day after she he appeared before a Congressional committee and was reprimanded for hours by Democrats and Republicans for the security failures. She called the attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades, but angered lawmakers by not answering specific questions about the investigation.
Democrats also expressed support for the task force, saying what happened in Butler was a despicable attack that should never have happened.
“We need to know what happened. We need to get to the truth. We need to prevent this from happening again,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.
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This story has been corrected to say that the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump happened on July 13, not June 13.
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