Congress is working to increase the retirement age for U.S. Capitol Police officers as the number of threats to lawmakers continues to climb and the department struggles to recruit and retain enough officers.
Legislation passed unanimously by the Senate on Thursday would allow Capitol Police officers to apply to extend their service until age 62, while a bill passed by the House earlier this year would allow them to serve until age 65. That would raise the current age from 60 for officers who apply for waivers to work beyond the legal forced retirement age of 57 or after 20 years of service, whichever comes later.
Raising the age could help the Capitol Police force stem personnel shortages, which Chief Michael Sullivan told Congress earlier this year “span all operational units.”
“We have 300 officers right now that could say I’m done, I’m ready to walk away,” Sullivan told House, appropriators in March, as officers hit their age limit or 20 years of service. “That would be catastrophic for us.”
California Sen. Alex Padilla, the top Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, authored the bipartisan bill with Senate Rules Committee Chairman Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Padilla said the legislation is a modest step as increased security measures are put in place to address the rise in threats.
By keeping older officers on the force, Padilla said, “we’re talking about officers who have served for a long, long time and have a tremendous amount of institutional memory, experience and expertise.”
“After bicameral and bipartisan discussions, I hope to see this measure signed into law,” Padilla said.
Nearly 60 sworn officers are already working on a retirement waiver, according to the House Administration Committee, more than double the size of a typical USCP recruitment class.
“No officer should be forced to retire when they can still do the job,” said Republican Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, the chairman of that panel.
Capitol Police has struggled to maintain officers
The Capitol Police has made improvements across the board since widespread security failures on Jan. 6, 2021, when the force was overwhelmed by thousands of President Donald Trump’s supporters who swarmed the grounds and broke into the building as they violently protested his defeat. Many officers left the department afterward, and retention and budget struggles remain.
The department’s budget request this year topped $1 billion for the first time as department leaders look to hire more officers and better protect members. Sullivan told lawmakers that the department has around 1,250 uniformed officers and needs 150 more to staff every post without paying overtime.
“I’m concerned with the overtime that we put on our folks every single day,” Sullivan said in the March oversight hearing. “There’s drafts on a consistent basis and it pushes the men and women that we have to the limit.”
Funding for the department’s protective intelligence, which protects members, is “very slim,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said a number of officers have left the force for other federal agencies that have better benefits.
“There’s nothing keeping folks here,” he said.
Huge spike in lawmaker threats taxes police force
Part of the reason for the shortages is the increased need for member protection. Threats against lawmakers have more than doubled in the last five years.
According to the department, almost 15,000 threats were investigated against members of Congress in 2025, a 58 percent increase from 2024. Sullivan said that the number of threats in 2026 is on track to be even higher.
The department has overhauled its security measures for members, boosting security for lawmakers and their families in districts around the country, and is working with local police departments that it reimburses. A January report said the force has seen an increase in reporting after a new center was launched two years ago to receive and process threat reports.
Lawmakers in both parties receive a “wide range of threats,” the report said.
All of that requires more personnel and experience, Sullivan said.
“While we focus on those individuals at the beginning of their career, we also need to focus on that experience that’s at the end of their career,” he told lawmakers.
About the Author
