The Senate on Thursday moved to raise the mandatory retirement age for U.S. Capitol Police officers, passing a bipartisan bill that would allow them to serve until age 62, as the force confronts a deepening shortage of officers and a historic surge in threats against members of Congress. The House passed its own version earlier this year, which would permit officers to remain until 65. Currently, officers face forced retirement at age 57 or after 20 years of service, whichever comes later, though waivers have been available for some to continue until 60.
Chief Michael Sullivan, in testimony before House appropriators in March, warned that the staffing deficits span every unit. “We have 300 officers right now that could say I’m done, I’m ready to walk away,” he said. “That would be catastrophic for us.” Nearly 60 sworn officers are already working under a retirement waiver, according to the House Administration Committee — more than double the size of a typical recruitment class.
The department has roughly 1,250 uniformed officers and needs at least 150 more to avoid relying on mandatory overtime, Sullivan said. “There’s drafts on a consistent basis and it pushes the men and women that we have to the limit,” he told lawmakers. Many officers have departed for other federal agencies that offer better benefits, he added. “There’s nothing keeping folks here.”
The retirement-age legislation, authored by Senate Rules Committee Chairman Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and the panel’s top Democrat, Sen. Alex Padilla of California, is meant to preserve the experience of senior officers. “We’re talking about officers who have served for a long, long time and have a tremendous amount of institutional memory, experience and expertise,” Padilla said. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., chairman of the House Administration Committee, echoed that view: “No officer should be forced to retire when they can still do the job,” he said in a statement.
The push to retain officers comes as threats against lawmakers have more than doubled in the last five years. The department investigated nearly 15,000 threats in 2025, a 58 percent increase from 2024, and Sullivan said 2026 is on pace to be even higher. A January report noted that a centralized threat-processing center launched two years ago has led to an increase in reporting, and that lawmakers in both parties receive a “wide range of threats.”
The spike in threats has strained the force’s protective operations. Sullivan said funding for protective intelligence — the unit that safeguards members — is “very slim.” The department has responded by boosting security for lawmakers and their families in districts nationwide and by working with local police departments that it reimburses.
The Capitol Police has also been recovering from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, when the force was overwhelmed by thousands of rioters and more than 150 officers were injured. Many officers left in the aftermath, and retention remains a persistent challenge. The department’s budget request this year exceeded $1 billion for the first time, as leaders seek to hire more personnel and improve protection for members.
Sullivan has framed the retirement-age increase as part of a broader effort to balance recruitment with retention. “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.
Padilla said he hoped to see the measure signed into law soon. “After bicameral and bipartisan discussions, I hope to see this measure signed into law,” he said. The Senate version and the House version will need to be reconciled before a final bill can reach the president’s desk.