Last Sunday, for the second time in three months, a would-be assassin attempted to kill the Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump -- this time while he was golfing at his private Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida.

Less than a week later, and in a rare display of bipartisan unanimity, the House passed without any dissenting votes on Friday a measure that would boost U.S. Secret Service protection for major presidential and vice presidential candidates, according to Fox News.

The bill now moves on to the Senate, where companion legislation awaits, and if passed there, to the White House, where President Joe Biden has already taken executive action to bolster Secret Service protection for the major party nominees.

Unanimous vote to boost Secret Service protection for major candidates

With a surprising vote of 405-0, the House on Friday voted to pass H.R. 9106, the Enhanced Presidential Security Act of 2024, that would require the Secret Service to "apply the same standards for determining the number of agents required to protect Presidents, Vice Presidents, and major Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates."

The bill was introduced bipartisanly by Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Ritchie Torres (D-NY) after the first assassination attempt against former President Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July.

"It is in the direct national security interest of the United States of America to provide the best protection in its power of its presidents and presidential candidates," the two congressmen said in a joint statement. "History has shown that assassinations can massively disrupt our nation’s political system, cause dangerous disorder and chaos, and embolden further violence. The two recent attempts on former President Trump’s life showed the world that unfortunately, the Secret Service has serious gaps in protection, and more must be done to ensure no one can take advantage of those vulnerabilities."

"We are deeply grateful to our colleagues in the House for voting overwhelmingly today in support of our bill, the Enhanced Presidential Security Act. We thank President Biden for recently taking action to increase former President Trump’s Secret Service detail," the lawmakers added. "However, without the passage and implementation of this legislation, this enhanced protection will not be codified into law and is subject to change with time. We urge the Senate and President Biden to get the Enhanced Presidential Security Act through the finish line for the good of the American people."

Elections should be decided by voters, "not by an assassin's bullet"

NBC News reported that in addition to the unanimous vote on the enhanced Secret Service protection bill, the House also separately passed a resolution to expand an already ongoing congressional probe of the July 13 assassination attempt to include the recent incident near former President Trump's Florida residence.

In promoting the bill, Rep. Lawler told reporters on Capitol Hill, "We as a federal government have a responsibility to ensure the safety and the well-being of these candidates. One of them is going to be president, and the election should be decided by voters at the ballot box -- not by an assassin’s bullet."

The measure's future prospects are unclear, but given the rare unanimous vote in the House paired with the Senate's ongoing discussions of boosting security for presidential and vice presidential candidates as well as President Biden's prior actions to do exactly that, it seems likely that the legislation will eventually become law.

GOP senators file similar measure

In fact, companion legislation has already been filed in the Senate by Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Rick Scott (R-FL) and has attracted around a dozen more co-sponsors, though it appears that all of them are Republicans thus far.

That bill, known as the Protect Our Presidents Act, would likewise require the Secret Service to provide major party nominees with the same level of protection as the sitting president -- though nominees have the option to decline the additional security -- and would require the protective agency to submit regular reports to Congress on the status of protection offered and threat level faced by each candidate, among other things.

"After two assassination attempts in two months against former President Donald J. Trump, it is abundantly clear that presidential nominees need the same level of protection as sitting presidents," Lankford said. "US Secret Service needs to be held accountable for their failures, and this bill would mandate reports for transparency and accountability during a presidential election year. Political violence is never acceptable in America. Amid these threats, we cannot sit back and ignore the security risks to a presidential nominee."

"Today, I am leading 12 of my Republican colleagues to introduce the Protect Our Presidents Act which mandates that the USSS provide the same level of protective services to presidential nominees that it affords to sitting presidents," Scott said. "President Trump has great officers and agents working around the clock to keep him safe, but it’s clear that the vile rhetoric on the left toward President Trump has made him a target and more resources are required to ensure the safety of him and his family. I urge Senate Democrats to join Republicans to quickly pass this bill that will support the protection of President Trump and all future presidential nominees."