Senate Rules Committee hears Capitol Police report progress, flags staffing gaps for member protection

Chair Amy Klobuchar convened the Senate Rules and Administration Committee’s final oversight hearing of the Congress to review the U.S. Capitol Police’s reforms and readiness for upcoming national special security events.

“Notably, all 103 recommendations that the department’s inspector general issued in the series of reports after January 6th have now been implemented,” Klobuchar said in opening remarks, crediting bipartisan work on security reforms and legislation that now allows the Capitol Police to request National Guard assistance in emergencies.

Chief Major told senators the department has strengthened planning, intelligence and frontline capabilities since July 2021. He described a centralized intelligence bureau, a standing civil disturbance unit composed of six platoons and a wellness center that provides trauma‑informed counseling and peer‑support training. “I can confirm that. We are. Every officers are are equipped with state of the art equipment for civil disturbance,” Chief Major said when asked whether officers now have needed riot and less‑lethal equipment.

Senators highlighted measurable staffing gains and remaining gaps. Klobuchar and others cited department figures that sworn strength rose from about 1,842 to 2,202 officers and that the department exceeded a hiring goal this year—hiring 315 officers against a 280 goal. Chief Major credited a competitive starting salary, annual retention bonuses and student loan repayment programs for helping recruitment and retention.

But senators focused their questions on security for members and staff outside the Capitol. Chief Major said external threats and swatting incidents have surged: the department reported “over 8,000 of these threats just last year,” and he told senators they had 700 threats in November alone. He said about 50 members were swatted in the last month and described heavy overtime in the Dignitary Protection Division, saying agents average roughly 50 hours of overtime every pay period.

“To provide reliable protection outside the campus, our DPD needs to be doubled,” Chief Major said, arguing the division should grow from the roughly 200–250 agents he described now to about 500 to allow 24/7 leadership protection and temporary detail support without robbing other posts. He also said the number of threat‑investigation agents—about 20—needs to be doubled and that hiring civilian analysts would free sworn agents to conduct field investigations.

Senators asked about member alerts and public communications. Chief Major said the department has written public‑information policies and daily intelligence briefings and described the Protective Intelligence Operations Center (PIAC) as a triage and coordination hub for incoming threats. He emphasized the trade‑off between speed and accuracy in crisis communications and said most operational alerts come from the command center.

Senator Mark Warner pressed the department on cyber protections and telecom vulnerabilities; Chief Major said the Capitol Police works closely with the Senate Sergeant at Arms and has personnel assigned to an FBI cybersecurity task force, and he warned that artificial intelligence both aids and complicates threat activity.

On retention policy, Chief Major said the Capitol Police Board agreed to extend the department’s mandatory federal retirement age from 57 to 60 to retain experienced officers.

Chair Klobuchar left the record open for a week for additional written questions and adjourned the hearing.

The committee requested additional follow‑up on resource needs, including whether authorization and appropriations must be raised to sustain recruit classes and fill analyst and protective staffing shortfalls.