The American Secret Service made a proposal to build a White House replica for training purpose as part of beefing up security to President Barack Obama and his family.
The proposal was put forward by US Secret Service Director Joseph P Clancy while testifying before a congressional committee Tuesday.
The agency's budget request includes $8 million to build a White House replica to train its agents and officers.
The Secret Service chief was questioned by the House Appropriations Committee about a series of recent security lapses.
He told the House Committee that the agency is seeking a replica of one of the world's tightest security buildings because his agents who currently train on a parking lot don't get "a realistic look at the White House " while training.
"Right now, we put up a makeshift fence and walk off the distance between the fence at the White House and the actual house itself. We don't have the bushes, we don't have the fountains," Clancy said.
The New York Times reported that the Secret Service plans to build the replica in Beltsville, about 20 miles from the real White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
A 500-acre Secret Service training site in the verdant terrain of southern Maryland would include the facade of the White House, the East and West Wings, guard booths and the surrounding grounds and roads, it says.
After multiple slip-ups, the Secret Service has been under fire that it cannot adequately protect the official residence of the US President.
The terrorist threats to the hub of the Obama administration is increasing recently.
White House was among three targets the terrorist outfit ISIS threatened to blow up last week. London's Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower Paris were the other two global landmarks an ISIS spokesman listed in a new audio message last Thursday.
This week, The US Secret Service reportedly found traces of poison on an envelope posted to the White House.
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