US Capitol Police are ramping up security for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address to Congress next week, including adding a non-scalable fence around the Capitol grounds, according to two sources familiar with the plans.
Intelligence officials in the police department warned in an email circulated to the force on Friday that the threat level remains elevated ahead of Biden’s annual address set for Tuesday night.
While there are no specific credible threats to the event, the Capitol Police bulletin notes that “recent incidents targeting politicians and law enforcement agencies within the past month indicate that there is a heightened threat toward government officials.”
The bolstered security comes as some Democrats say they’re concerned for the safety of the president, dignitaries and others who attend the address and as lawmakers have verbally sparred over guns on Capitol grounds after magnetometers were removed from the entrance to the House chamber.
Earlier this week, after the issue was raised during a committee hearing, a House lawyer reminded Republican colleagues that firearms are prohibited on US Capitol grounds except for members of Congress in their personal offices.
“Wanted to remind everyone that since 1967, long-standing federal statutory provisions … and Capitol Police Board regulations have generally prohibited the possession of firearms on the Capitol Campus,” the general counsel for the Republican-led House Administration Committee wrote in an email to GOP staffers.
The State of the Union marks the first major test of the 118th Congress’s Capitol Police Board, the oversight body for Capitol Police, which is now split down party lines. It also follows a series of high-profile threats and violence aimed at political figures, including the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi, former House…
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