Government Executive email The director thanked employees for their hard work and resilience over the past year. Ahead of budget negotiations ramping up, the Secret Service director on Thursday told House lawmakers he would like continued funding for staffing increases, retention of current employees and cybersecurity. Secret Service Director James Murray praised his workforce during a House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing and highlighted several ongoing and future investments that would support the agency’s employees. So far, President Biden has only released an outline of his fiscal 2022 budget proposal, with a full version expected later this spring. “We are highly committed to our human capital strategic plan, which gets the agency to somewhere around 9,595 [employees] by fiscal year 2026,” so funding will be critical for that, Murray told the subcommittee. The agency––which had 7,609 employees as of December 2020, according federal data––is currently working to achieve its fiscal 2021 year goal of about 7,900 positions filled. Murray did not discuss the specific amount of funding that would be necessary to reach staffing goals.