Washington — Members of Congress will receive security briefings this week after a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband were killed, and another state lawmaker and his wife wounded in targeted shootings on Saturday.
Senators are set to receive a security briefing from the Senate Sergeant at Arms and the U.S. Capitol Police on Tuesday. The briefing comes at the request of Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Schumer said Sunday that the bipartisan briefing would concern security for Senate members and the country more broadly.
“We have to reevaluate how we are protecting members of Congress and staffs in the face of rising threats, but we also have to look at protecting all American people as that happens,” the New York Democrat said.
Schumer said he also asked the Capitol Police to immediately increase security for senators following the attacks.
He said the shootings are “more than a regional tragedy.”
“It’s part of a troubling pattern, a wave of political violence that threatens the very foundation of this republic,” he said.
Members of the House, who are on recess this week, are set to be briefed virtually on Tuesday by the House Sergeant at Arms, multiple sources told CBS News. The briefing was organized by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who said in a statement Saturday that he asked the Sergeant at Arms and Capitol Police to “ensure the safety of our Minnesota delegation and Members of Congress across the country.”
The briefings come as the shootings raised concern about political violence and security concerns for elected officials. Former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger, who retired from his post last month, told CBS News at the time that the threats facing members of Congress have accelerated over the past several years, and remain alarmingly high.
The U.S. Capitol Police’s Threat Assessment cases climbed for the second year in a row in 2024, with more than 9,400 concerning statements and direct threats investigated against members of Congress, their families and staffs. The figure is more than double where it stood in 2017, when under 4,000 cases were evaluated.
Manger said the heightened threat assessment is “really a reflection of our political landscape today.” He outlined that threats come in from across the country, and Capitol Police has nationwide jurisdiction to address the threats.
“We are sending investigators, agents all over this country to investigate these cases, we make many arrests, we are able to resolve some of these threats in other ways as well,” Manger said. “But that’s a huge responsibility.”
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