House increases security funding ahead of members' return to their home districts after attack on Minnesota lawmakers
Members will have $20,000 to increase the security of their homes, up from the current $10,000 allotment, according to a release from the Committee on House Administration obtained by CNN, as well as $5,000 a month to pay for personal security through the end of the fiscal year.
The security personnel would be allowed to accompany members in their districts and protect their homes. Currently, members only had $150 a month for security monitoring purposes.
The increase in funding comes as House lawmakers will soon return home for a five-week work period in their districts, where coordination between US Capitol Police and local law enforcement has consistently presented challenges. Lawmakers have called for more security measures in the face of ongoing threats against politicians.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Tuesday that this is a 'pilot program' that will be evaluated after September 30.
'The allowance is so that people can have private security if they deem that necessary and then at the end of September we are going to look at that, evaluate all of the data points, how effective it was, how it was utilized and then make decisions going forward. We live in an enhanced threat environment,' Johnson said.
House Administration Chair Bryan Steil, who led the effort, told CNN he worked with his Democratic counterparts to reallocate available funds to increase options for lawmakers.
'We announced it as soon as we were able to reach agreement, outline the funds and delineate the program,' Steil said.
There have been heightened concerns over public officials' security in the wake of the deadly attack in Minnesota. At the time, congressional lawmakers pressed law enforcement officials on how to keep their families safe amid an increasingly volatile political environment.
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.
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.
A spate of recent attacks has seen House Majority Leader Steve Scalise seriously wounded by a gunman targeting a congressional baseball team practice in 2017, lawmakers across the Capitol at risk during the January 6, 2021, riot at US Capitol and Paul Pelosi attacked in his California home in 2022. And mere months before the 2024 presidential election, Trump was targeted in two apparent assassination attempts.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Democratic socialist in Maryland legislature ready to ‘fight like hell,' says party moving in his direction
BALTIMORE — As self-described 'Democratic socialist' candidates are seeing greater success in races around the country, one Maryland lawmaker who embraces the label believes Democratic Party voters are shifting in his direction. Del. Gabe Acevero, a 34-year-old member of the Democratic Socialists of America, represents Montgomery County in the Maryland General Assembly. He was first elected in 2018 — long before Zohran Mamdani and Omar Fateh gained national attention for winning the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City and an endorsement from the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minneapolis' mayoral race, respectively. As the electorate becomes younger and more progressive, Acevero said that establishment Democrats should 'be cognizant' of what that constituency wants if it plans to win elections. 'If you look at where our base, where our constituency and where America is trending, we have to focus on working-class issues — from housing to socioeconomic, gender, environmental, justice — and we can't just continue to provide lip service as a party,' he said. 'We have to fight like hell, not just for the policies, but for workers and the working class. And that's what I've been committed to in the legislature and will continue to do so.' Del. Matt Morgan, a Republican from St. Mary's County, said he knows Acevero well and considers him 'a nice guy.' He said it's 'undeniable' that the Democratic Party is shifting in Acevero's direction. And, in fact, 'it's already there,' Morgan said. He thinks the push into socialism is ultimately a losing proposition for Maryland voters. 'Socialism has a 100% failure rate. The more it's implemented in Maryland, the more people are going to leave,' Morgan said. Recent elections in New York and Minnesota are perhaps indications that the word 'socialism' does not carry the same negative connotation among voters today — especially among Generation Z and younger millennials born after the Cold War, according to Flavio Hickel, an associate professor of political science at Washington College. These voters, and others who increasingly identify as 'working class,' believe Democrats 'need to offer a more ambitious, aggressive, and left-leaning' policy vision, Hickel told The Baltimore Sun on Wednesday. 'I don't think mainstream Democrats would regard what [Acevero] said as probably all that offensive or problematic,' Hickel said. 'They just might differ in sort of, the tactics — how far, how quick and how aggressively do we pursue progressive change?' A staff member for the Maryland Democratic Party did not immediately respond to The Sun's request for comment on Acevero's claims that Democrats are moving in his direction. What a Democratic socialist wants in Maryland Acevero's campaign platform has often leaned progressive: police and criminal justice reform, a $15-per-hour minimum wage, single-payer Medicare For All, universal basic income, higher taxes for the wealthy, and support for kids aging out of the foster care system. 'I think, at the time, a lot of people were trying to, essentially, discourage Democratic voters in District 39 from voting for me, because [they thought], 'these are like radical socialist policies,'' said Acevero. 'In actuality, what they are are popular policies that working people in our state want to see enacted, and so we ran a — similar to Zohran [Mamdani] — a people-powered campaign.' Like Mamdani, Acevero has been vocal in his support of Palestinians in the Gaza war against Israel during his time in the state legislature. In 2025, he introduced the Not On Our Dime Act, which would have required the Maryland Secretary of State to remove nonprofit organizations from the state's Registry of Charitable Solicitation if they knowingly engage in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity. That bill was heard in the House Judiciary Committee, but not debated on the floor. Acevero also sponsored a joint resolution in 2024 that would have conveyed to Maryland's congressional delegation that the General Assembly supports a long-term ceasefire in Israel and Palestine. The joint resolution was heard in the Rules and Executive Nominations Committee, but did not advance further. 'I've been very unapologetic' Acevero told The Sun that Democrats 'weren't particularly fond of' him because, prior to his election in 2018, he was an activist with a penchant for holding politicians in both parties accountable. 'I wasn't the darling of the establishment, and I certainly wasn't embraced by the establishment Democrats in District 39,' he said. 'I unseated a two-term incumbent, and I ran on a working-class, progressive agenda that some folks tried to weaponize … using the whole 'Red Scare Socialism' scare tactic.' Acevero alleges establishment figures later hand-picked a candidate to beat him in the 2022 primary, calling his policies 'pie in the sky' or 'radical.' Still, he won. Though he's rounding out his second term, Acevero still isn't necessarily 'embraced' by other Democrats in the General Assembly. Often when he participates in floor debates, he is jeered and his comments — occasionally incendiary — are often called into question. In 2021, he offered amendments to a package of major police reform bills because he felt the settled policy didn't go far enough. Acevero voted against the Democratic redistricting plan later that year because he says he doesn't believe in gerrymandering. He's publicly critical of criminal justice bills that establish mandatory minimum sentences, of which he said: 'Time and again, civil rights organizations have pointed out … it ties judges' hands, but it also disproportionately impacts, you know, Black and Latino people.' 'I've been very unapologetic about the policies that I advocate for and who I am, because I think it's important,' he said, adding that efforts to 'delegitimize Democratic Socialists and their policies [have] never worked.' -----------------
CNN
25 minutes ago
- CNN
Mamdani names a new campaign manager as part of staff expansion
Zohran Mamdani is naming a new campaign manager and hiring additional staff, CNN has learned, as the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor aims both to consolidate support heading into the November general election and to begin planning a potential administration. Elle Bisgaard-Church, Mamdani's chief of staff in the state assembly and the manager of his primary campaign, will become chief adviser, people familiar with campaign operations told CNN. Her new role reflects Mamdani's desire to begin long-term planning – not technically transition work, since he has to win in November first – and thinking through the implementation of his sweeping ideas. She will be succeeded as campaign manager by Maya Handa, who ran the mayoral primary campaign of state senator Zellnor Myrie. Handa has worked for notable local and national progressive figures including former New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, as well as the locally powerful Working Families Party. Bisgaard-Church, in a statement, told CNN she's 'incredibly proud of the historic campaign we ran in the primary. While our focus now is singularly to ensure Zohran is elected as the next mayor of New York City, I'm excited to take on this new role and continue building toward the future.' Mamdani, who was largely unknown before his primary campaign took off, has held conversations with elected and community leaders whose support he is trying to win, lining up endorsements even as top New York Democrats have declined to back him. His campaign is absorbing supporters and top aides from his former rivals, part of his efforts to unite different camps of progressives and mainstream Democrats. Handa will be joined by Afua Atta-Mensah as political director and Deandra Khan as director of labor and intergovernmental affairs. Atta-Mensah is taking a leave from her position at the group Community Change. Khan was an adviser to the president of 32BJ SEIU, a union of mainly building workers that backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary, arguing he was the leader the city needed to deliver for working people in the city. The union has since endorsed Mamdani. A 33-year-old who has never run a staff larger than his state assembly office, Mamdani is hoping to become the chief executive of a city of 8 million people with a nearly $116 billion annual budget and over 300,000 employees. He'll be hoping to do that while radically reworking city operations, from launching government-run grocery stores to trying to make buses free, all while managing complications like union contracts and the massive police force. The staff expansion comes while the candidate himself has been in Uganda for most of the last half of July for another celebration of his wedding. Mamdani this week also expanded his press and communications staff and shifted aides who were in top roles for the primary campaign to other spots internally. Mamdani aides argue this is part of the natural growth and maturation as the campaign moves to a bigger stage, pointing out that no one has left, only more people have joined. In something of a shift since his shocker primary victory, Mamdani himself has adapted his own approach since the primary win, with more of his public time spent standing behind a lectern at set events, while Cuomo, who is staying in the race as an independent, has taken to making low-cost videos out on the streets in the hopes of breaking back through. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, also running as an independent, has spent much of his time mocking both.
USA Today
26 minutes ago
- USA Today
Republicans in Congress head home to angry voters. So much for summer break.
The Jeffrey Epstein case has grown into a full-blown problem for Republicans who were already failing Americans. And that feels like a lose-lose scenario as 2026 midterm elections loom. What are you doing during your summer vacation? U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson apparently plans to spend his six-week break trying to get his story straight about the Epstein files fiasco. That's a daunting challenge for the Republican from Louisiana, who has flip-flopped from calling for "transparency" on the issue to sending the House home early on July 22 to shut down Republican attempts to release those files. But that's life when you unconditionally surrender the Article I powers that the U.S. Constitution grants Congress as a coequal branch of government to a scandal-prone presidency held by Donald Trump. If Johnson's vacation were a scary summer movie, we'd have to call it 'I Know What You Did With the Epstein Files.' Things don't look much better for the Republicans who are in control of the U.S. Senate. Trump wants that chamber to work through the summer break so it can rubber-stamp his nominees for various positions. If this also were a horror film, it would be a sequel – "No Way Out, Again" – because Trump did the same thing with a compliant Senate during his first term in 2018. So here are the options for congressional Republicans from now until early September: Go home and endure town halls with constituents angry about Trump's broken promise to release the Epstein files and the looming negative impacts of his signature budget bill. Or stay in Washington and answer a growing rush of questions as the Epstein news keeps beating like a "Tell-Tale Heart." Scary stuff, indeed. Epstein files put a stop to Republicans' victory lap Johnson has served less as a speaker of the House and more like a servant to Trump's expectations. And that was working for him. He helped pass Trump's budget bill, which slashes health care for the working poor while offering short-term tax relief for some in return for permanent tax cuts for America's wealthiest people. He did that as well with Trump's "rescission" package, which canceled federal funding that Johnson's own House had previously approved. He and Trump were looking forward to a victory lap on all that, despite consistent polling that shows a majority of American voters don't care for it at all. But the scandal surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, who has been dead for six years, will not pass away. Trump exploited conspiracy theories on the reelection campaign trail about his old cruising buddy, a convicted pedophile who died in prison in 2019 during Trump's first term while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. But then Trump, who promised while campaigning in 2024 to release the Department of Justice's files on Epstein, decided recently to keep them secret, enraging his own supporters and putting his Republican allies in Congress in a tight spot. Maybe it's just a coincidence that Attorney General Pam Bondi is reported to have briefed Trump in May that he is mentioned in those very files that his supporters want to see released. So Trump's in a tight spot, too. Johnson's slipshod response to the Epstein secrecy has been to advocate for transparency, which Trump doesn't want, and then revert to presidential servitude by trying to stamp out any attempts at transparency. This has provoked something we rarely see anymore – bipartisanship – as Republican and Democratic members of the House voted together to subpoena the Epstein files. This doesn't look like it will simmer down in six weeks. Americans are clearly unhappy with Trump's Republican regime Republicans are hitting the road with a story that isn't selling well. A July 23 Fox News poll found that 67% of American voters think Trump's administration has not been transparent about Epstein, including 60% of the Republicans surveyed and 56% of Trump's so-called MAGA supporters. And then there's this: Fox News found that 4 out of 5 people in the survey said they were following the Epstein case. We're closing in on the end of July – vacation season – and these people are tuned all the way in on this. Trump's budget bill was also underwater in the poll, with 58% disapproving and 39% in support. That makes for testy town halls, if the Republicans dare to hold them in the next six weeks. And that feels like a lose-lose scenario with the 2026 midterm elections looming ever larger. Face your angry constituents and be ready to go viral on social media, exactly the kind of things that would-be opponents mine for campaign commercials. Or duck and cover and get branded a coward, exactly the kind of thing that would-be opponents exploit for campaign commercials. No matter which way Republicans go, at home or in Washington, they should first ask themselves: Does Trump care about how any of this impacts me and my future in politics, or is he only interested in protecting himself? I think they already know the answer. Trump is – now, in the past, in the future, always – looking out only for himself. That prompts two more questions. Why is he working so hard to keep the Epstein files secret? And do you really want to be on the record helping him with that secrecy if the files are finally released? Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.
