Reply #7: Secret Service is a part of the Treasury Department.

[meldroc]

It's a federal law enforcement agency originally tasked with fighting counterfeiting. To this day, if you try photocopying a $100 bill and try to spend it somewhere, it will be the Secret Service that busts your ass. They also fight other forms of counterfeiting - bootleg movies, software, counterfeit prescription drugs, etc. As part of the Treasury Dept., they investigate other financial crimes. They even got in on busting black-hat computer hackers - they're regulars at hacker conventions like DEFCON (where the attendees play a spirited game of Spot the Fed.)

After President McKinley's assassination, the Secret Service got their second role of protecting the President and other VIPs.