The US Secret Service has requested $US8 million ($A10.47 million) to build a replica of the White House for use in training agents.
Training director Joseph Clancy said the agency's current rudimentary training facility in Maryland is not to scale, and has "no structures, vehicle gates, lighting, or other aides to enhance the training simulations".
He told a House of Representatives panel reviewing 2016 funding that his agency's budget "includes $US8 million for the design and initial construction of a White House mock-up" in Maryland that will provide for a "more realistic environment conducive to scenario-based training exercises".
The lack of realistic training facilities is in marked contrast to US military operations, which have used such replicas for years.
The US Navy's elite SEAL Team 6 constructed and trained in a replica of the Pakistan compound where terror mastermind Osama bin Laden was holed up and eventually killed in 2011, according to a Navy SEAL who wrote a book on the operation.
Other military units are known to have built mock-ups of Iraqi and Afghan villages.
The Secret Service has been under intense scrutiny in recent years for a series of security lapses and breaches in behavioural protocol including agents drinking and consorting with prostitutes while on or ahead of presidential trips.
Last September, in an incident that triggered alarm in Congress and across government, an intruder carrying a knife scaled the outer fence of the grounds, made his way into the White House, and ran through several rooms before he was finally apprehended.
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