Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) took to X on Sunday morning, hours after a suspected shooter reportedly tried to storm the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner to attack President Donald Trump and administration officials, and told Democrats it was time to stop blocking funding for the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security.
Scott's broadside landed the morning after what Breitbart News described as the third assassination attempt against Trump. The Florida senator framed the incident as proof that Democrats can no longer justify their refusal to fund the very agents tasked with keeping the president alive.
The core of Scott's argument is blunt: Senate Democrats have refused to pay Secret Service agents for more than 70 days, all while the threat environment around Trump continues to escalate. Scott wants the Senate to force a vote this week, putting every Democrat on the record.
In his Sunday post on X, Scott laid out the stakes in plain terms. He wrote:
"When will the DEMOCRATS stop playing politics and speak out against assassination attempts on our PRESIDENT? Enough is enough."
He followed up with a direct call for action on the Senate floor, pressing for a recorded vote on DHS funding:
"This week, the Senate should put Democrats on record again and see how they vote. Will they decide now is a good time to finally fund Secret Service and all of DHS? Even after last night's violence and ANOTHER assassination attempt against the President of the United States this shouldn't be such a fight to get done."
Scott also zeroed in on the personal cost to the men and women who wear the badge. The agents who shielded Trump and administration officials at the dinner have been working without full funding for weeks. Scott described the Democratic holdout as a political stunt at the expense of those agents' livelihoods and safety.
"Democrats have REFUSED to pay Secret Service agents for over 70 DAYS. The very agents that put their lives on the line to protect others and keep our nation safe. The Democrats need to give up this RIDICULOUS political stunt and FULLY FUND DHS."
The backdrop to Scott's demand is a prolonged congressional standoff. DHS and Secret Service funding lapsed after what Breitbart described as a Democrat-imposed standoff over immigration enforcement funding in Congress. Democrats have resisted approving the broader DHS budget, and the Secret Service has been caught in the crossfire.
That standoff has tested the patience of Republicans across both chambers, who see the delay as reckless given the current threat environment.
Republicans moved on Thursday to adopt a budget resolution that would allow them to fund ICE and Border Patrol through the reconciliation process, bypassing Democratic opposition entirely. That maneuver signals the GOP is prepared to go around Democrats on immigration enforcement, but the Secret Service funding question remains unresolved through normal appropriations channels.
The reconciliation path covers ICE and Border Patrol. It does not solve the broader DHS shortfall that leaves Secret Service agents working under a funding cloud.
The funding fight arrives at a moment when the Secret Service is already warning it cannot meet the demands ahead. Secret Service Director Sean Curran said last week that the agency will need significantly more resources through 2028. He pointed to a packed calendar: the FIFA World Cup, the 2028 Olympics, and the 2028 presidential election all fall within that window.
Curran said the workforce is not staffed to handle that workload. The agency has requested funding to hire 852 new positions and to train local law enforcement to assist with large-scale events that require heavy-lifting from the protective detail.
Those numbers paint a picture of an agency already running lean. Recent incidents have only reinforced the point. A Secret Service officer was injured after a man jumped a barrier near the White House, and the agency has faced a string of security challenges that suggest its operational margin is razor-thin.
Now add a third reported assassination attempt against the sitting president. The question Scott is posing to Democrats is not abstract. It is whether they are willing to leave the Secret Service underfunded while threats against Trump continue to materialize.
The suspected shooter at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner represents the third such attempt on Trump, according to Breitbart's reporting. Details about the suspect's identity, any injuries, and the full circumstances of the incident remain unclear. But the mere fact of another security breach, at a high-profile Washington event attended by the president and senior officials, underscores how serious the protective challenge has become.
The Secret Service has also dealt with internal problems that raise further questions about readiness. A shooting near the White House triggered a heightened alert in a separate incident, and the agency has confronted its own personnel issues alongside the external threats.
Every one of these episodes lands on an agency that is being asked to do more with less. Director Curran's warning about the years through 2028 is not hypothetical. The FIFA World Cup, the Olympics, and a presidential election cycle will each demand massive deployments. The 852 new positions Curran requested are not a wish list, they are what the agency says it needs to keep up.
Democrats who block DHS funding are not just making a political statement about immigration enforcement. They are holding hostage the pay and resources of every Secret Service agent standing between the president and the next threat.
Scott's strategy is straightforward. Force a Senate vote. Make Democrats choose, on the record, whether to continue the standoff or fund the agency responsible for protecting the president. After a third reported assassination attempt, that vote becomes harder to dodge.
The Democratic position, as described in Breitbart's reporting, centers on opposition to immigration enforcement funding bundled into the DHS budget. That objection may play well with the party's base. But it looks different when the consequence is Secret Service agents going unpaid for more than two months while the president they protect faces repeated threats on his life.
Republicans have already shown they will use reconciliation to fund ICE and Border Patrol if Democrats refuse to cooperate. The question now is whether Democrats will let the Secret Service remain a casualty of that broader fight. Internal agency challenges, from misconduct cases involving trainees to operational mishaps, only compound the pressure on an already strained workforce.
Several facts remain unresolved. The identity of the suspected shooter at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner has not been disclosed in available reporting. It is unclear whether anyone was injured or arrested. The specific terms of the DHS funding lapse, and exactly which appropriations mechanisms are in play, have not been fully detailed.
What is clear is the trajectory. Three reported assassination attempts. A 70-plus-day funding lapse. An agency director publicly warning that his workforce cannot keep up. And a Senate minority that has so far refused to budge.
Scott wants a vote. He wants names attached to the decision. And after Saturday night, the argument for delay got a lot harder to make.
When the agents standing between the president and a would-be assassin haven't been paid in two months, the people blocking their paychecks owe the country more than a talking point about immigration policy.
