US congressional task force to investigate Trump shooting

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives is forming a bipartisan task force to investigate the shooting of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, its Republican and Democratic leaders said on Tuesday.

The panel, comprised of seven Republicans and six Democrats, will make recommendations for reforms to relevant government agencies and will have subpoena authority, according to a statement from Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.

The U.S. Secret Service (USSS) has come under blistering criticism since the July 13 assassination attempt on the former president. At hearing on Monday, the House Oversight Committee's Republican chairman, James Comer, and top Democrat, Jamie Raskin — normally bitterly divided on most issues — each called on USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign.

"The security failures that allowed an assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life are shocking," Johnson said in a statement, adding the task force would move quickly to "make certain such failures never happen again."

He said House lawmakers will vote on a resolution this week to establish the force and its members.

Cheatle on Monday called the shooting the agency's most significant operational failure in a decade but has rebuffed calls to step down.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu;editing by Susan Heavey)