How does the Capitol Police Board decide to request National Guard assistance, and who has the authority to approve deployments?
Executive summary
The Capitol Police Board historically had to approve requests for National Guard assistance, a requirement critics say contributed to delays on January 6, 2021 [1]. In response, Congress passed and the President signed the Capitol Police Emergency Assistance Act, which now allows the Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police to request DC National Guard or federal law‑enforcement assistance in emergencies without prior board approval, while preserving limited oversight and revocation authority [2] [3].
1. How the decision used to be made: the Capitol Police Board’s gatekeeping role
Before the 2021 law change, requests for National Guard aid at the U.S. Capitol flowed through the Capitol Police Board — a three‑member operational body composed of the House Sergeant at Arms, the Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Architect of the Capitol (with the Capitol Police Chief as an ex‑officio, non‑voting member) — and any external assistance had to be submitted by that board, a process that multiple post‑Jan. 6 reports called bureaucratic and opaque [2] [1] [4].
2. What went wrong on January 6 and why it mattered
A bipartisan Senate investigation and testimony from then‑Chief Steven Sund documented that the board’s approval requirement, confusion about procedures, and conflicting recollections among board members delayed formal National Guard requests as the Capitol was being breached, contributing to hours‑long lag times before substantial Guard forces were on site [1] [5] [6].
3. The legislative fix: what the Capitol Police Emergency Assistance Act changed
Congress enacted the Capitol Police Emergency Assistance Act to empower the Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police to unilaterally request assistance from the D.C. National Guard and federal law enforcement agencies in emergencies when the Chief determines such assistance is necessary to prevent significant disruption of government functions or public order on Capitol grounds, explicitly eliminating the prior requirement for board pre‑approval [2] [5] [7].
4. Who now has authority to approve deployments — and what checks remain
Under the new law the Chief can make the initial request directly, but the statutory framework preserves mechanisms for after‑the‑fact oversight and limited board control: the Capitol Police Board retains the power to revoke a request for assistance upon consultation with congressional leadership and joint congressional committees were authorized to conduct oversight hearings and require board attendance, creating post‑deployment accountability even as front‑line decisionmaking was decentralized [2] [3] [8].
5. The practical chain of command and the role of the Pentagon and D.C. officials
Even when a request originates from the Chief, deployment of D.C. National Guard forces involves the D.C. Guard’s command and, historically, Defense Department authorization and coordination; investigations into Jan. 6 also pointed to Pentagon concerns about “optics” and unusual restrictions that affected how and when the Guard was mobilized, underscoring that a Chief’s request is necessary but not always sufficient to produce immediate federal troop movements [9] [10] [1].
6. Competing interpretations, political context and lingering ambiguities
Supporters of the statutory change — including Senators Klobuchar and Blunt — framed it as a corrective to demonstrated procedural failures so the Chief can act swiftly in emergencies [7] [8], while other reporting and fact checks underscore that multiple actors (board members, D.C. officials, Pentagon leaders) contributed to the overall timeline on January 6 and that some disputes about who requested what and when remain contested in testimony [4] [6] [1]. The law narrows one procedural bottleneck but does not resolve all coordination issues between local, congressional and Defense Department actors, nor does the public record fully settle questions about earlier denials and communications among officials on that day [5] [9].
Conclusion
Operational authority to initiate a request for National Guard or federal law‑enforcement assistance at the Capitol now rests with the Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police in an emergency, reversing the prior requirement that the Capitol Police Board grant pre‑approval; however, deployment still implicates other commands and federal decision‑makers and is subject to statutory revocation and strengthened congressional oversight intended to prevent both delay and unchecked unilateral action [2] [3] [1].