Ocean County Leader

With the strong support and vote of Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester), the House of Representatives voted late last night to establish a bipartisan congressional task force to investigate the attempted assassination of President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania earlier this month.

"The lack of transparency from top Biden Administration officials following the horrifying assassination attempt on President Trump is absolutely unacceptable," said Smith, a cosponsor of the legislation (H.Res. 1367) adopted by the House to set up the task force.

"The American people deserve nothing but prompt and thorough answers and the absolute truth about what happened that tragic day in Pennsylvania, as well as swift accountability for those responsible for this egregious security failure," Smith said.

The congressional task force is empowered with investigative authority, including subpoena power, to probe and fully examine the attempted assassination and issue a final report of its findings, including any recommendations for possible legislative reforms to prevent future lapses.

The establishment of the full-fledged congressional commission comes on the heels of U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s resignation on Tuesday amid fallout from her refusal to provide information to Congress surrounding what she admitted was the agency’s "most significant operational failure" in decades.

Smith, who had cosponsored legislation (H.Res. 1368) on Monday to impeach the Secret Service Director, said Congress must continue to press relentlessly for answers to get to the bottom of what happened.

"While Director Cheatle’s resignation is an important and necessary step for accountability, Congress must leave no stone unturned and use every resource at our disposal to identify the major lapses and address all security shortcomings," said Smith. "The viability of our democracy depends on it."