The Hill News

CAMBRIDGE, Md. â€" House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) may not be second in line to the presidency anymore, but the former Speaker still commands top-level security.

Reporters using a makeshift press room one mile from the House Democratic retreat on Maryland’s Eastern Shore were asked to leave for several minutes so the room could be swept by a bomb squad before Pelosi and other senior lawmakers arrived for a press conference. Security officials scanned the reporters with magnetometers before they re-entered.

The press is being held in a separate venue from the Hyatt Regency resort where lawmakers are gathering, and where President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will speak later Friday. The only access reporters will have to the retreat itself will be for Biden’s speech; they will be shuttled to the Hyatt for the speech and then taken back to the press hotel immediately afterward.

Similar security precautions were not ta! ken for a press conference Thursday that included three members of the Democratic leadership â€" Reps. James Clyburn (S.C.), John Larson (Conn.) and Xavier Becerra (Calif.) â€" but not Pelosi, who is now minority leader.

Reporters were told the security screening for the Pelosi press conference was conducted in part so they would not have to be re-screened when they arrived at the Hyatt for Biden’s speech more than two hours later.

The measures come amid heightened security concerns for members of Congress after the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). Lawmakers have had security briefings at the Capitol, and senior congressional security officials are speaking to members’ spouses at the Democratic retreat.

The House Republican retreat last week in Baltimore, which included Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), also featured high levels of security.