The U.S. Secret Service (USSS) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has two missions—criminal investigations and protection. Criminal investigation activities encompass financial crimes, identity theft, counterfeiting, computer fraud, and computer-based attacks on the nation's financial, banking, and telecommunications infrastructure. The protection mission is the more publicly visible of the two, covering the President, Vice President, their families, former Presidents, and major candidates for those offices, along with the White House and the Vice President's residence (through the Service's Uniformed Division). Protective duties of the Service also extend to foreign missions (such as embassies, consulates, and foreign dignitary residences) in the District of Columbia and to designated individuals, such as the Homeland Security Secretary and visiting foreign dignitaries. Separate from these specific mandated assignments, USSS is responsible for certain security activities such as National Special Security Events (NSSEs), which include presidential inaugurations, the major party quadrennial national conventions, as well as international conferences and events held in the United States. The most recent congressional action (not including appropriations) on the Service is the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011 ( P.L. 112-98 ), enacted during the 112 th Congress, which amended 18 U.S.C. 1752 and made it a crime for unauthorized individuals to enter a building that is secured by USSS. Congress, arguably, has begun to focus its attention on legislation related to the Service's financial and computer crime investigation mission activities. Legislation in the 113 th Congress includes a House committee-referred bill on cyber privacy security; a House committee-referred bill on information technology security; a Senate committee-referred bill on data security and breaches; and a Senate committee-referred bill on personal data privacy and security. Additionally, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing entitled "White House Perimeter Breach: New Concerns about the Secret Service," on September 30, 2014, which addressed a security breach on September 19 th , where a person gained unauthorized entrance into the White House after climbing the perimeter fence, and previous incidents. The committee inquired if deficient protection procedures, insufficient training, inadequate funding, personnel shortages, or low morale contributed to these security breaches. Later, on the same day as the hearing, it became public knowledge that earlier in the year a private security contractor at a federal facility, while armed, was allowed to share an elevator with President Barack Obama during a site visit, in violation of U.S. Secret Service security protocols. The following day, October 1, 2014, USSS Director Julia Pierson resigned. This report discusses potential policy questions for the upcoming 114 th Congress concerning the Service's mission and organization through an examination of the USSS history and its statutory authorities, mission, and present activities within DHS. The policy questions presented in this report are only considerations, since the Service is widely perceived to be operating and performing its missions effectively for the past 11 years as part of DHS. Additionally, Appendix A provides a list of the direct assaults on and threats to Presidents, Presidents-Elect, and candidates. Appendix B provides a list of statutes addressing USSS activities. Since 1865, as part of the U.S. Treasury Department, USSS has evolved into a federal law enforcement agency with statutory authority to conduct criminal investigations and protect specific federal officials, individuals, and sites. Congress transferred USSS to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2002 legislation. The original mission of the Service was to investigate the counterfeiting of United States currency. This mission has been expanded throughout the agency's history through presidential, departmental, and congressional action. At times, early in the agency's history, Secret Service agents conducted investigations that were not related to financial system crimes. Examples include the investigation of the Ku Klux Klan in the late 1860s and counter-espionage activities in the United States during World War I. Today, USSS conducts criminal investigations into counterfeiting and financial crimes. Within the investigative mission area is the USSS's forensic services division. USSS forensic services personnel conduct analyses of evidence, some of which includes documents, fingerprints, false identification documents, and credit cards, to assist in USSS investigations. USSS's investigative support is also responsible for developing and implementing a criminal and investigative intelligence program. One of the components of this program is the Criminal Research Specialist Program, which provides intelligence analysis related to infrastructure protection, conducts forensic financial analysis, and provides research and analytical support to USSS criminal investigations. Additionally, in 1994, Congress mandated that USSS provide forensic and technical assistance to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. From protecting President Grover Cleveland in 1894 on a part-time basis to the constant protection of President Obama, the USSS history of protection has been directed by unofficial decisions (such as the protection of President Cleveland) and congressional mandate (such as the protection of major presidential candidates). USSS protection activities have expanded over the years as the number of individuals and events requiring USSS protection grows, with only one instance of a specified type of protectee being removed from the authorized list. For the first time, in 2008, USSS protected a spouse of a former President who was also a presidential candidate, and it protected a Vice President who was not running for his political party's nomination. The following are the current individuals authorized USSS protection in 18 U.S.C. Section 3056(a): President, Vice President, President- and Vice President-elect; the immediate families of those listed above; former Presidents and their spouses; former Presidents' children under the age of 16; visiting heads of foreign states or governments; distinguished foreign visitors and official United States representatives on special missions abroad; major presidential and vice presidential candidates, within 120 days of the general presidential elections, their spouses; and former Vice Presidents, their spouses, and their children under the age of 16. USSS protection operations have also evolved over the years. Originally, USSS protection entailed agents being, what could be described as "bodyguards." Now protection includes not only the presence of agents in close proximity to the protectee, but also advance security surveys of locations to be visited, coordination with state and local enforcement entities, and intelligence analysis of present and future threats. The USSS protection mission uses human resources and physical barriers, technology, and a review of critical infrastructures and their vulnerabilities to increase security to meet evolving threats. Statutes also authorize USSS to conduct such other activities as participating in the planning, coordination, and implementation of security operations at special events of national significance, and providing forensic and investigative assistance involving missing or exploited children. In recent years Congress has appropriated approximately $1.6 billion annually for the USSS. The following table provides the Service's FY2013 and FY2014 budget authority. The "Investigation Mission" and "Protection Mission" have distinctive characteristics and histories, and each has been affected by informal decisions and congressional action. Since USSS's transfer to DHS, any statute still in effect authorizing or requiring the Treasury Secretary to perform some function connected to the USSS's previous statutory responsibilities has now been assumed by the DHS Secretary. This report does not detail every law enacted that has affected USSS, but instead attempts to identify congressional actions that addressed the role and responsibility of the Service. Additionally, Appendix B in this report provides a list and brief description of the statutes identified in this report. Due to a plethora of currencies issued by states prior to the establishment of a federal banking system, counterfeiting was a major problem in the United States. In 1806, Congress passed the Enforcement of Counterfeiting Prevention Act, which enabled U.S. marshals and district attorneys to investigate and prosecute counterfeiters. The authority to investigate counterfeiting was later transferred to the Department of Treasury (TREAS) in 1860. In order to regulate U.S. currency and increase sanctions against counterfeiters, Congress passed the National Currency Act in 1863. Also in 1863, the Treasury Secretary directed the Office of the Solicitor of Treasury to assume the department's role in investigating counterfeiting. Counterfeiting continued to be a problem for the federal government throughout the Civil War; and by 1865, between one-third and one-half of all U.S. currency in circulation was counterfeit. As a result of this currency crisis, the Treasury Secretary established the Secret Service Division (SSD), within the Office of the Solicitor of Treasury in 1865. At the July 5, 1865, swearing in of the new chief of the SSD, William P. Wood, Treasury Secretary Hugh McCulloch stated "your main objective is to restore public confidence in the money of the country." SSD's primary responsibility was to investigate counterfeiting, forging, and the altering of United States' currency and securities. The Office of Solicitor of the Treasury administered the SSD until 1879. Statutory recognition was given to SSD in 1882 when the 47 th Congress appropriated funds when it continued to be administered by the Treasury Department, as follows. SECRET SERVICE DIVISION.—For one chief, three thousand five hundred dollars; one chief clerk, two thousand dollars; one clerk of class four; two clerks of class two; one clerk of class one; one clerk at one thousand dollars; and one attendant at six hundred and eighty dollars; in all, twelve thousand nine hundred and eighty dollars. In 1889, SSD's mission was expanded to include espionage activities during the Spanish-American War and World War I. This mission was phased out at the end of each war. In 1894, the Service informally acquired the protection function at the request of President Grover Cleveland. Additionally, the SSD began another task outside the purview of its original mandate: the investigation of land fraud in the western United States in the early 1900s.