The US Secret Service is hoping to build a £5.4million replica White House to train agents.
The Secret Service has come under fire recently following a number of issues but today the agency’s director Joseph Clancy today told a House Appropriations subcommittee of his plans for the £5.4million practice building.
He explained a replica mansion would be built in Beltsville, Maryland, about 20 miles (32 km) from the president’s real home in Washington.
Mr Clancy said the new facility could replace the car park that the agents currently train in which ‘does not have the bushes and fountains that the White House grounds do.’
The request follows a series of embarrassing security lapses in recent years, including a knife-wielding man sprinting across the White House lawn and trying to make his way into the building last year.
In 2011, another man opened fire on the White House with a semi-automatic rifle from the street – nobody realised the White House had been hit until four days later when a housekeeper discovered a broken window and a slab of concrete on a balcony.
Mr Clancy was appointed by President Obama last month to take over the troubled agency on a permanent basis.
The 30-year veteran agent had served as acting director since October, when then-Secret Service boss Julia Pierson was forced to resign.