Bill provides supplemental security funding requested by Court and U.S. Marshals
WASHINGTON—United States Senators Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Mark Warner (D-VA), Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, today introduced legislation that provides an additional $10.3 million to the U.S. Marshals Service and $9.1 million to the U.S. Supreme Court to address the unprecedented security threats to the justices, their families, and court employees.
The U.S. Marshals Service has already been providing around-the-clock security for the nine Justices at their homes and needs $10.3 million in additional funding for costs that have and will be incurred to provide this protection for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22). Similarly, the Supreme Court needs $9.1 million to cover its unexpected, increased security costs.
“An assassination attempt on one of our Supreme Court Justices is unthinkable, but sadly has become reality,” said Senator Hagerty. “We must protect our most sacred American institutions, which is why my updated legislation provides the specific amounts requested by the Supreme Court and the U.S. Marshals Service to cover their current security needs. If we, as a Congress, are willing to send tens of billions of dollars for security needs overseas, then surely we can provide a tiny fraction of that amount to protect the men and women of one of the three branches of our federal government. The cost of failing to act is incalculable, as last week’s news made chillingly clear.”
“Our government institutions are dealing with a record number of threats,” said Senator Warner. “We saw on January 6 what can happen when we are unprepared for those threats. This legislation will provide the level of funding the Supreme Court needs to protect the justices and court employees.”
Officials at the Court and the Marshals Service recently provided specific security funding needs to the Appropriations Committee.
Last month, before receiving this updated information, Hagerty introduced legislation that appropriated $10 million in additional resources to the Court.
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