article: Secret Service agents will take a bullet for the President of the United States, but apparently they won't swim for him. When the public commissions with jurisdiction over the White House heard proposals for beefing up the presidential mansion's perimiter, they were told that the government wouldn't be digging a moat around the building. That idea, it turns out, was actually under consideration. But NBC-TV4 in Washington reported that 'there was concern expressed about having to retrieve people from it.' Ultimately saner heads prevailed: The National Park Service and the Secret Service are recommending the addition of half-inch-thick spikes, angled away from the White House, to the existing fence. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS . A JOKE TAKEN SERIOUSLY: One television network mocked up what 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue might look like surrounded by a ditch filled with water to deter would-be intruders . A Washington, DC television station showed this mockup on Thursday, depicting the angled steel spikes that will soon be atop the White House perimeter fence . The new spikes, officially known as 'pencil protrusions,' will be bolted on at the top for a year or more while an entirely new fence – as tall as 10 feet – is planned and fabricated. The White House might also get a prison-style double fence with space in between, but barbed wire has been ruled out. A sitting U.S. congressman suggested in November that the Secret Service would be better able to protect the president and his family if 1600  Pennsylvania Avenue took a more mediaeval approach to security with a moat. Tennessee Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen made the idea part of his brainstorm in a Q-and-A session with then-Acting Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy during a Capitol Hill hearing. 'Would a moat – water, six feet around – be kind of attractive and effective?' a straight-faced Cohen asked. LOW-TECH FENCE: A man named Omar Gonzalez scaled the existing wrought-iron barrier in front of the White House in September – and ran all the way into the White House while carrying a knife in his pants pocket . Clancy replied that changes to the presidential mansion's perimeter fence was the main upgrade under consideration. 'Like a higher fence?' Cohen followed up. 'You're right sir, a higher fence would certainly help us,' the Secret Service director told him. In the hearing, conservative Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas suggested that if the White House won't build a fence or a wall on America's southern border, strengthening the White House's fence should be an equally bad idea. Obama administration officials have long argued that fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border would be worthless. 'I would think that if the admin's gonna being consistent,' Gohmert said, 'it's now time to remove the fence from around the White House, 'cause if it isn't good enough for our border, it shouldn't good enough for our White House.' Secret Service Acting Director Joseph Clancy played mop-up in November, apologizing to Congress for hooker scandals, security breaches and a shooting . MAKE IT TALL: Texas Republican Rep. Louis Gohmert said last year that if the Obama administration doesn't want a border fence between Texas and Mexico, it shouldn't expect one around the White House . Or else, the right-wing firebrand added, Obama's policymakers should admit that 'maybe there really is some real virtue in having a fence that slows people down.' Among the Secret Service's recent embarrassing episodes has been a series of fence-jumping security breaches, including a man with a pocket knife who made it all the way into the East Room. Cohen, the moat-proposing Tennessean, found mention of that hair-raising moment amusing in November. 'This guy got further in the White House than some of my Republican colleagues have ever gotten,' he said, laughing.
highlights: White House planners say they're ready to recommend spikes at the top of the mansion's fenceposts to better protect the president .
  Move comes after several fence-jumpers, including one who sprinted inside the White House .
  Tennessee Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen asked the acting Secret Service director in November if 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue needed a six-foot moat .
  That idea was actually under consideration, but later scrapped over maintenance concerns and 'having to retrieve people from it'
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