Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is reportedly the only official to receive U.S. Marshal protection, and it could cost $20 million by next year

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is still receiving constant protection from the taxpayer-funded U.S. Marshals Service, and the security detail is now expected to cost nearly $20 million through September 2019, NBC News reported Friday.

DeVos has received this around-the-clock protection since being confirmed in February 2017, as was previously reported, with former Attorney General Jeff Sessions granting the request. This arrangement is unusual, NBC News writes, because an education secretary’s security would typically be handled by the department's internal enforcement, and DeVos is the only current member of the Cabinet who has such a detail arranged.

In terms of the price tag, the report notes that former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's security cost $3.5 million during his first year in office, and the EPA's inspector general found that price tag to be "not justified." DeVos' security, on the other hand, is estimated to cost taxpayers $7.7 million just for the next fiscal year. It will reportedly be reimbursed by the Department of Education.

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The request for this detail was made shortly after DeVos was heckled by a group of protesters when she visited a middle school in February 2017. The Justice Department says the order was issued after the Department of Education contacted them about "threats received by the secretary of education," although an Education Department spokesperson says DeVos didn't make the request. Since she started receiving her security detail, DeVos has reportedly spent less than four percent of her time visiting public schools. Read more at NBC News.