Sponsors (2)
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Andrew S. Biggs · Last progress January 3, 2025
The bill centralizes select Secret Service functions in the FBI to improve coordination, staffing speed, and resource use, but does so at the cost of potential operational disruption, increased centralization of power, legal and oversight uncertainty, transition costs, and impacts on Secret Service personnel.
Federal law enforcement (FBI agents and national security investigators) will gain consolidated authority to investigate and arrest violators of certain financial and related statutes, improving interagency coordination and potentially strengthening case outcomes.
Federal employees and the public awaiting decisions (agency staff, businesses, license applicants) will see continuity of operations because agencies can detail personnel on a reimbursable basis, pending licenses/cases/rulemakings remain in effect, and OMB/FBI coordination is required to implement transfers.
Federal employees whose duties are transferred will generally preserve existing employment actions, contracts, and benefits, reducing immediate disruption to staff and protecting individual employment rights during the handover.
Secret Service personnel and protective operations (USSS staff, DHS responsibilities, and those protected) face risk of operational disruption and short-term gaps in protection or investigations as functions, assets, and staff are reallocated to the FBI.
Taxpayers and the public risk increased federal centralization of investigative and protective authority at the FBI, raising civil‑liberties and oversight concerns (mission creep, reduced local responsiveness, and concentration of power).
Agencies, employees, and outside parties could face legal and accountability uncertainty because statutory references and duties once tied to the Secret Service will be read to apply to the FBI, and OMB's broad discretion over transfers could reduce transparency.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Transfers many Secret Service criminal investigative functions, related assets, personnel, and obligations to the Director of the FBI, while preserving ongoing cases, administrative actions, and legal references tied to those functions. It requires agencies to assist the FBI during the transition, authorizes OMB to carry out incidental dispositions of transferred assets and liabilities, and sets a 30‑day post‑enactment effective date with some transition actions allowed immediately on enactment. The law keeps existing orders, proceedings, and employment terms in effect as they move to the FBI, allows the FBI to adopt personnel rules and directly hire in competitive service positions needed to carry out the transferred work, and clarifies that references in federal law to the Secret Service (for transferred functions) will be read as references to the FBI or the FBI component that receives the function.