WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. government agencies that send employees abroad on business have widely varying rules about personal behavior while on assignment and the consequences of violations, a problem that some lawmakers want to fix in response to a scandal this month involving Secret Service agents and Colombia prostitutes.

Reuters asked about half-a-dozen federal agencies whose employees frequently travel overseas whether they had specific rules on engaging with prostitutes or similar behavior.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – They are screened so carefully that their families are interviewed before they are hired. They hold top-secret security clearances, are trained to use lethal force and stand inches from the leader of the world’s most powerful nation.

U.S. Secret Service agents are also drilled almost from Day One on the need for probity, discretion and solid morals.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Secret Service said on Friday that three more of its employees have resigned, bringing to six the number that have left the agency in connection with alleged misconduct involving prostitutes in Colombia last week before President Barack Obama’s trip there.

The Secret Service also said that a 12th employee had been implicated in the ongoing investigation into a night of partying on April 11-12 that embarrassed the United States and overshadowed Obama’s participation in the Summit of the Americas last weekend.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The attorney for some of the Secret Service agents under investigation in a scandal involving prostitutes in Colombia ahead of President Barack Obama’s trip, said on Thursday a “trial by mob” was wrong.

Lawrence Berger’s comments to Reuters in a telephone interview came after the Washington Post identified the two supervisors involved as David Randall Chaney, 48, in the international programs division, who was allowed to retire, and Greg Stokes, assistant special agent in charge of the K9 division, who has been notified that he will be fired.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Three U.S. Secret Service employees under investigation for alleged misconduct with prostitutes in Colombia before a trip by President Barack Obama are leaving their jobs, the agency said on Wednesday.

They were among 11 Secret Service agents and 10 U.S. military personnel who allegedly took as many as 21 women back to their hotel virtually on the eve of Obama’s weekend trip to Cartagena for the Summit of the Americas.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secret Service agents and military personnel took as many as 21 women back to their hotel in Colombia in an incident last week involving alleged misconduct with prostitutes, a Republican senator said on Tuesday.

“There are 11 agents involved. Twenty or 21 women foreign nationals were brought to the hotel, but allegedly Marines were involved with the rest,” Senator Susan Collins of Maine – who was briefed by the director of the Secret Service, Mark Sullivan – said in an email to Reuters.