Obama Appoints First Female To Lead Secret Service
"Julia is eminently qualified to lead the agency that not only safeguards Americans at major events and secures our financial system, but also protects our leaders and our first families, including my own," the president said in a statement Tuesday.
Pierson, 53, is now charged with cleaning up the reputation of the agency, which ran afoul of a prostitution scandal in Columbia last year.
"The boys will be boys excuse will never work again--not as long as she is there," said Secret Service book author Jeffrey Robinson to the USA Today.
"All that crap that went down in (Columbia), that won't ever happen again."
Members of both political parties hailed the pick, with Homeland Secretary Janet Napalitano saying the selection was "historic," and Republican Senator Chuck Grassley wishing Pierson well in turning around the agency.
Pierson has been with the Secret Service as an agent since 1983, and became the agency's chief of staff in 2008.
For more on the Secret Service Scandal, click here.
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