Capitol review to recommend adding more fencing, 1,000 officers: report

A review of Capitol security after the Jan. 6 riots is going to recommend adding more fencing around the building, as well as more than 1,000 Capitol Police officers, two sources with direct knowledge of the findings told CNN.

The draft proposal of recommendations comes just over a month after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tapped retired Lt. General Russel Honoré to review security around the Capitol in the wake of a mob of former President Trump’s supporters laying siege to the building in an attempt to prevent the certification of President Biden’s Electoral College victory.

At the time, Pelosi said Honoré’s review was to focus on “security infrastructure, interagency processes and procedures, and command and control.”

The additional 1,000 personnel, which could cost nearly $100 million, would include roughly 350 officers and expanded staffing in regional offices for when lawmakers are at home, one of the sources told CNN.

The network reported that the recommendations also include establishing a quick reaction force composed of a National Guard military police battalion that’s on standby in Washington full-time.

And the report advises long-term security changes to perimeter security, including building an integrated system of walls and fences around the complex.

The Hill has reached out to Pelosi’s office and the Capitol Police for comment.

Capitol Police officials have reportedly called for the current 7-foot-tall security fence that was erected after the Jan. 6 insurrection to be in place until September. This came after acting U.S. Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman recommended the fencing be left in place permanently, which garnered bipartisan backlash.

Pittman told lawmakers on Thursday that the security measures were “not popular,” but said that they will have to remain while Congress faces security threats.