Republican Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota has decided to sleep with a loaded pistol near his nightstand after the deadly shootings targeting Minnesota state lawmakers and their families over the weekend.
Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan didn’t know he was potentially putting himself at risk by attending a “No Kings” protest in his Wisconsin district Saturday because he didn’t find out until the next day that his name had been included among theMinnesota suspect’s alleged writings.
And Rep. Tim Burchett, who has repeatedly raised lawmaker safety concerns with House GOP leadership, is now leading an effort to get members of Congress around-the-clock security services when they’re in their home states.
“I don’t want to go to one of my colleagues’ funerals because I didn’t speak up,” the Tennessee Republican told CNN.
Thefatal shootings in Minnesotahave reignited the long-standing question of how to ensure the safety of 535 US lawmakers and their families with limited resources in an increasingly toxic political environment where threats of violence against politicians are at an all-time high. In 2024 alone, US Capitol Police investigated more than 9,000 threats against lawmakers, marking an 83% increase from the year prior and part of a trend of growing threats against public officials.
After the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, the Capitol Police established new departments to take on the increased threats including a stand-alone intelligence bureau and with it, an expansion of intelligence-gathering systems. During a budget hearing earlier this year, then-USCP Chief Thomas Manger made a substantial request – close to $1 billion – to maintain and expand the department’s current operations, with a focus on monitoring and handling threats.
“We are not an ordinary law enforcement agency,” said Manger, seeking to justify the department’s request by citing the rise in threats, need for new technologies as well as 288 additional officers, and comparing the USCP work to that of federal agencies like the Secret Service and FBI.
In the wake of the Minnesota incident, efforts are underway to examine how to increase the security funding available to lawmakers, a source familiar with the process told CNN.
The US Capitol Police is enhancing security for members of Congress “impacted” by the Minnesota shootings and offered 24-hour protection for those lawmakers whose names appeared among the alleged shooter’s writings that investigators say they found, CNN previously reported.
“We have been working around the clock with our Congressional, federal, state and local partners to ensure that the Members of Congress impacted by this terrible event have a strong security plan,” Capitol Police said in a statement Monday. “We continue to closely coordinate with the House and Senate Sergeant at Arms to enhance security for Members of Congress.”
USCP also noted “proactive enhancements,” but did not elaborate on what those would be.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee are pressing Speaker Mike Johnson to do more, writing in a letter obtained by CNN that the responsibility to protect all lawmakers “starts with you.”
Beyond funding levels, many members have felt in recent days there is a larger issue at play. They believe there is a lack of coordination between Capitol Police and local authorities regarding security threats when lawmakers are in their districts.
“Why is it so hard to get information in this moment?” a source familiar with the conversations about lawmaker security said of the flow of information after the Minnesota incident.
House Republicans received a briefing by law enforcement officials on Saturday, shortly after the attack that left one Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband dead, and another state legislator and his wife wounded.
On the call, multiple GOP lawmakers told CNN they raised concerns about the threats they face and pressed officials on the call on how to keep their families safe. Many left unsatisfied.
Burchett characterized the response from leadership and law enforcement personnel as “the same old thing.”
One glaring issue, a federal law enforcement source told CNN, is that the Capitol Police force is not the Secret Service and was never designed to protect hundreds of lawmakers and their families.
The USSS, with a larger budget and a list of protectees in the dozens, not hundreds, has been plagued by its own coordination issues with local and state law enforcement, which were exposed in the wake of the assassination attempt on then-candidateDonald Trumplast summer.
A bipartisan group of senators and House Democrats received briefings Tuesday.
“The threat to public officials and their families is very real,” Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin told CNN as he left a briefing on Capitol Hill, calling it “sobering.”
Saying that lawmakers were “discussing” additional measures, the veteran Democrat said “there’s a lot being done that’s not being reported and won’t be reported, but there’s more that has to be done.”
“I have more security than most – I have a security detail, one is with me right now – but most of my colleagues don’t have that. Before they expanded coverage for me, I hope that others would be helped too,” said Durbin, the longtime second-ranking Democrat in the Senate.
While the Minnesota attack has placed a renewed focus on how law enforcement addresses high-profile threats of violence against public officials, lawmakers have long called for an overhaul of security practices, with focus on resources dedicated to information sharing.
Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who met with Johnson months ago after he saida man was arrestedin connection with “a potential plot on [his] life,” told CNN that USCP hadn’t informed him of the threat – he only learned about it from local authorities.
“We’re not safe and our families are not safe. Capitol Police does a great job. They’re great people. But they’re not set up for this. They don’t have the resources,” Moskowitz told CNN.
The Florida Democrat said he is prepared to upend procedure and try to force Congress into a secret session to address lawmaker security if leadership doesn’t act swiftly in the wake of the Minnesota attacks.
Currently, lawmakers can take a number of steps to beef up their security protocols, including seeking reimbursements for bulletproof vest purchases, for hiring security personnel in certain instances or getting their own security training, and for making a range of security enhancements to their district offices. Rank-and-file members – unlike congressional leadership – do not receive a dedicated security detail. And when a lawmaker is granted – based on threat level – temporary security, the detail is not assigned to also protect the lawmaker’s family, prompting many to use personal or campaign funds for additional security.
The perceived breakdowns in communication when lawmakers are back in their districts are leading some to take security protocols into their own hands.
“If the United States House of Representatives cannot protect my family, I will. Period,” GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a retired Navy SEAL, told CNN.
A spate of recent attacks has seen House Majority Leader Steve Scalise seriously wounded by a gunman targeting a congressional baseball team practice in2017, lawmakers across the Capitol at risk during the January 6, 2021, riot at US Capitol and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband attacked in their California home in2022. And as recently as July, mere months before the 2024 presidential election, Trump was targeted in two apparent assassination attempts.
Even though many lawmakers told CNN the worsening political climate will not deter them from doing their job, some are beginning to question whether the risks are worth it.
“There’s more at risk for you personally than ever before,” one GOP lawmaker granted the anonymity to speak freely about private conversations with their colleagues told CNN. “I think people wonder, ‘What the heck am I doing?’”
Since the shootings this weekend, Capitol Police have been working to establish a new security plan for members. The department is looking into providing security for all members when they step outside Capitol grounds – something that has been largely reserved to lawmakers in top positions.
The plan, which is in its beginning stages, could include signing agreements with state and local law enforcement in the areas where all 535 members and their family live to have those local officers provide security, one source familiar with the planning told CNN.
Another option is setting the Capitol Police up like the Secret Service or FBI, where the department would have field offices around the country responsible for security when lawmakers are home or visiting the office’s jurisdiction.
“We’re trying to figure out what we can do in the short term,” the source familiar with the planning told CNN, adding that providing around-the-clock security isn’t something the Capitol Police, in its current form, could handle. “I don’t think we have money for that.”
Such protection “would completely change us from a security mission to a protective mission … that’s not something you can do overnight,” the source said.
One official at the Secret Service noted that the federal agency – whose focus is security for a handful of protectees – is working to hire more agents. The challenge for Capitol Police to provide the same or similar level of protection as the Secret Service for hundreds of members, the USSS source said, would require a complete overhaul of the police department and a significant budget increase.
“It’s just not possible,” the source said of the department in its current form and budgetary restraints – a budget controlled by the same lawmakers who are voicing these security concerns.
CNN’s Manu Raju, Alison Main and David Wright contributed to this report.