Campaign Puts New Strain on Secret Service

Counterfeit money in circulation grew 20 percent between 2003 and 2006, from $58 to $81 per million dollars, said Rep. David E. Price (D-N.C.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security. Losses prevented by Secret Service investigations dropped 40 percent in 2006, from $556 million to $316 million.

While its goal is to spend 65 percent of its resources on investigations -- 50 percent in presidential election years -- the service is cutting investigators' budgets and is on track to flip its usual ratio, spending nearly two-thirds on protective duties.

"Is it a systemic problem within the organization that there has been a drop-off regardless of the campaign? I would say it is," Sullivan told Price's panel. "We flat out need more people."

The Secret Service, mindful of offending the White House or Congress, said in a statement that it "declines to participate with this story."

The statement said plans are in place and the service's personnel are prepared, adding, "We are currently working with the Department of Homeland Security in order to address campaign funding issues."

But members of Congress in both parties are throwing jabs.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, called on Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to "provide the necessary resources," saying, "The stability of our nation and institutions of our democracy must be protected."

"The Secret Service is being stretched thinner with these added requirements," Rogers said. "It can't be done on the cheap."

The exceptionally early start of the 2008 race and its unusually large field have increased the pressure, forcing the Secret Service to scramble to keep up with the longest and costliest U.S. presidential campaign ever.

Candidate protection is expensive. Flight, lodging and per diem expenses are sizable, exceeding the $100 million that the Secret Service normally spends on travel per year. Security details require three shifts of agents that rotate every three weeks, bomb-sniffing dogs, sophisticated communications equipment, hundreds of vehicles, and even, at times, specialized gear such as detection and jamming devices.

Chertoff's recent decision to authorize protection for Obama was also unexpected. The Secret Service initially estimated that it would need to staff 739 "candidate protection days" for 2008, on the low end of the range of 300 to 2,000 days it has staffed for campaigns over the past 40 years.

But with coverage of Obama starting 18 months before Election Day, his campaign alone could consume 540 days, at a rate of about $44,360 a day.