Posted on 05/15/2026 10:16:51 AM PDT by Libloather
WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Oh, and defund the police, dammit.
Expertise in shooting unarmed women in the head, beating unconscious women to death and leaving their weapons in bathrooms?
An early mandatory retirement age for congress would probably make everyone much safer
Nothing like having a bunch of over the hill geezers patrolling and lurching around to protect a bunch of over the hill geezers.
They’re keeping their handpicked stooges from aging out.
It’s good to be Deep State.
It seems Congress actually thinks those DEI hires can protect them.
why not just pull some cops in from NYC? I hear they are quitting in mass.
A lot of older men can be better than a lot of females as long as some level of physical health and fitness is maintained as a requirement.
“An early mandatory retirement age for congress would probably make everyone much safer.”
Harsh! They should be allowed to work until 65 too.
William Holden as the retiring, older overworked cop in The Blue Knight was able to run down, beat up and handcuff the bad guys while keeping the younger Lee Remick satisfied after his shift. He seemed to have not gained one pound in his career.
That was my first thought.
True enough, but at some point age will have its way, especially in a conflict with younger, stronger, faster perps. That said, it remains to be seen what the Capitol Police have as physical fitness requirements. A lot of local and federal agencies have none, and some who do get bogged down in male vs female fitness requirements.
It isn’t sustained combat, it is police work, and when it comes to grappling with offenders during an arrest and running them down and then overwhelming them, and just the natural male aggression when confronting a fellow male who is a bad guy, the decades experienced male cops versus replacing them with females should be discussed, replacing the males with females has not worked out and it always leads to a weakening and softening of the institution that they start taking over.
Right on with the female replacements of veteran cops. That doesn’t have to be the norm, though, and maybe the anti-DEI momentum will correct that. I’ve also noticed a disturbing trend among female police chiefs/sheriffs that makes me wonder where they came from and who persuaded them that clownish actions and corruption are the wave of the enforcement future.
My experience with sheriffs over the last 15 years has made me aware of the danger when they are around, they are scary in their paranoia and otherness and their eyes and body language is like that of a scared animal, very tense and wired.
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