The president addressed the controversy during a joint press conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. Allegations that a Secret Service unit interacted with prostitutes in Colombia ahead of Obama's visit overshadowed a trip that was supposed to focus on trade and other pressing issues between the U.S. and its Latin American ally.

Obama cast the incident as isolated, and praised the Secret Service as a whole.

"These men and women perform extraordinary service on a day-to-day basis protecting me, my family, U.S. officials," he said. "They do very hard work under very stressful circumstances and almost invariably do an outstanding job."

Details are still emerging, but at least one Secret Service agent in Colombia is said to have had a dispute with a prostitute at the hotel where agents were staying. Nearly a dozen agents were subsequently recalled and replaced with a new crew before Obama's arrival.

Lawmakers on Tuesday accused officials with the federal General Services Administration of jet-setting around the South Pacific on the taxpayers' dime, and the lawmakers described the agency's pricey 2010 Las Vegas conference as the tip of the iceberg of wasteful spending.  http://www.beatsbydrecustom.net/