The Secretary of the Treasury has been asked by the Presidents to sit with the National Security Council for some years, practically since its beginning.
The Attorney General has sat with it during the last few years, but I don't know whether that will or will not continue into the future. So there is a certain problem there.
If this assignment is given by law to the National Security Council, and some other President comes along that doesn't ask the Secretary of the Treasury or the Attorney General to sit with it, the two people who are probably most concerned wouldn't have any part in this.
Mr. Dulles. It would have to provide that in all matters relating to Presidential security, of course, they will be present. One way of doing it, I would say.
Secretary Dillon. Yes; there should be some such provision; otherwise I see some advantages as you say.
Mr. Rankin. Mr. Secretary, are you familiar with the method of selection of the Secret Service personnel?
Secretary Dillon. Only somewhat. They do get young men who meet their qualifications. They do hire them at GS-7 and they stay there for 1 year. If they have a year of satisfactory service, they are promoted two grades. Then if they have 2 more years of satisfactory service, they are promoted another double jump to GS-11.
These individuals do not have the legal qualifications that some other law enforcement agencies such as the FBI require, where you have to be a lawyer or an accountant, because they do other kinds of investigative work and that wasn't thought to be necessary in the case of the Secret Service.
But the Secret Service has felt, and I have inquired into this, that they have no difficulty in getting young men of the highest type to come and to take these jobs under the present setup.
Mr. Rankin. Do you have a printed or written list of the various qualifications that you seek in regard to the Secret Service?