Lawmakers may soon increase funding for their own security, as concerns about political threats have increased after the assassination of U.S. co-founder Charlie Kirk.
Congressional leaders in both rooms have begun pilot programs, with members increasing safety allowances when traveling in their areas or outside Washington, where they are protected by Congressional police. Now, they are considering speeding up the transition from test cases to permanent products.
Members of both sides were concerned about increasing political violence in the shocking attack, suggesting that some opponents would silence people to those views they disagree with.
Mr. Kirk, 31, was assassinated while a debate with Utah Valley University students on Wednesday as part of his fall campus trip. The 22-year-old was allegedly arrested for the murder and Tyler Robinson fired a gun at Mr. Kirk from the roof from where he was talking.
In June, two Democratic lawmakers and their spouse were shot dead. Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband died, while state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife survived the attack.
The man was charged with multiple counts of murder in the shooting, and Vance Boelter, 58, pleaded not guilty in federal court earlier this month.
One month after the Minnesota shooting, House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Management Chairman Bryan Steil announced a plan to double the amount of lawmakers’ money on installing residential safety systems to $20,000.
They also temporarily increased the $150 monthly security monitoring and maintenance allocation for House members to $5,000, and said lawmakers could use additional funds to hire individual security personnel. However, monthly additions are only authorized until the end of September 30th of fiscal year 2025.
Mr. Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters Thursday that about 20 members took advantage of the increased personal safety allocation, but after Mr. Kirk was assassinated, he heard more from lawmakers interested in doing so.
The speaker said: “Many members of both sides of the aisle are approaching me and said, ‘You know, I haven’t attended in the past few months, but my spouse is very worried now. My family is very worried. I’m very worried.’
Mr Johnson said the participation rate of the two-month pilot program is designed to give House leaders an idea of how much they should budget for this in the future.
“We don’t have big data sets to sample because there aren’t so many members leveraging it,” he said.
Now, with fresh concerns about political violence and the deadline for government funding, Mr. Johnson said House leaders are “a very detailed review of existing options and how we need to enhance such options to ensure members’ safety and safety.”
He admitted that it was expensive and in the House of Representatives, which has 435 members, it was impossible to provide Capitol police safety details for every legislator. The spokesman said the estimated signs would cost billions of dollars and would require hiring 5,000 Capitol police.
But the Senate has started its own pilot program to ultimately provide protective details when all senators are outside Washington, according to Senator Markwayne Mullin, a Republican in Oklahoma and senior box office, which provides a panel that oversees legislative division spending.
“We may be further away than the house,” he said.
Mr Mullin said the Senate is undertaking a pilot program to provide personal safety details for senators with “higher levels of threat” that will help them determine the cost and feasibility of extending it to all 100 senators.
“What is life?” he said. “And unfortunately, most people think we already feel safe with ourselves. The truth is, we don’t. It’s also a sad moment in the political environment where we find ourselves, and it’s a must-have discussion.”
Mr. Mullin declined to say which senators or how many were involved in the pilot program, which provided safety details in their state rather than in Washington.
The pilot program should initially run for a year, but Mr. Mullin said Kirk’s assassination “has made things a lot faster.”
The September 30 funding deadline adds additional pressure to the government to ask lawmakers to figure out whether they need to further increase Congressional security funding.
The Senate legislative branch spent the fiscal year 2026 spending bill, which was passed in July but is still in talks with the House, including $15 million to provide enhanced security for senators and provide them with $3.5 million in residential safety expenses.
The House of Representatives provides secure funding for legislators through its members’ representative allowance (MRA), the name of its personal office budget. The Chamber of Commerce has not yet passed its fiscal legislative division expenditure bill, but the version of the committee’s report continues to existing MRA funding levels, including $25,000 for security purposes, which was first added in 2017.
Mr Johnson suggested that the amount may need to be increased given the threats after Kirk’s assassination and member anxiety.
“We have to protect people who run for office or who don’t want to,” the spokesperson said. “It feels heavy on our hearts and our minds when we’ve also experienced the trauma of what’s going on.”
