Capitol Police officers who were spread thin in recent weeks amid security concerns, an unpredictable congressional schedule and the July 4 holiday say they’re in danger of missing out on money owed to them as they bump up against pay limits.
The busy period has resurfaced debates about how best to meet the staffing challenges that come with protecting Congress.
The department has a biweekly pay cap of $8,680 and an annual cap of $225,700, set by the Capitol Police Board. That limits what officers can make by working overtime — and in some cases, means they pull long hours without being paid like it.
One officer described the scene earlier this month, as the Senate wrapped up Republicans’ mammoth reconciliation package. “What we’re struggling with right now is this pay period, the Senate’s been in for three straight days, working 24 hours a day. … Everyone’s got to work overnights,” said the officer, who was granted anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.
“You have a rehearsal concert on the 3rd and you have the concert on the 4th. Again, everyone’s working 16-hour days. So you’re going to force me to come in and work a 16-hour day on a holiday and not actually pay me for the holiday.”
Raising the biweekly and annual caps would help, the officer said, as would waiving them during periods of forced overtime. “But overall, why do we even have them?” he said.
Capitol Police union head Gus Papathanasiou said the bargaining unit hoped to see a waiver around the Fourth of July holiday, but it didn’t happen.
The request for relief was made during a particularly hectic time, officers said. But even if the coming August recess may bring a temporary lull for some, things show little sign of slowing down on Capitol Hill as Republicans rush to enact President Donald Trump’s agenda before the midterms. Senators this week waded into their fourth vote-a-rama of the year, which often means late-night hours. Meanwhile, officers said rising threats and protests have taken a toll.
“We are proud of everyone in our Department who works around the clock to protect the Legislative Branch in this heightened threat environment, and we are thankful our oversight Committees are generous with their support and our compensation,” a Capitol Police spokesperson said via email Monday.
“This is not unique to our Department, as all federal employees are subject to similar bi-weekly pay limits. However, at the end of the year, employees still receive any premium pay that was capped due to the bi-weekly limit — up to the legal limit of $225,700,” the statement continued.
The House and Senate sergeants-at-arms and the architect of the Capitol — who make up the Capitol Police Board, which has oversight of the department — did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s true that many officers who are docked for exceeding the biweekly pay limit will eventually be paid that money back, provided they have not gone over the annual maximum amount. But some will go over the yearly limit and lose out or risk being furloughed, said another officer, who also requested anonymity.
“Some people are going to always say that Capitol Police are way overpaid for what they do. Others are going to say we don’t get paid enough for the amount of work we have to do, the threats we face,” the second officer said. “But at the end of the day … if you work the time, you’re supposed to get paid for it.”
‘Woefully understaffed’
Overtime pay for Capitol Police can be an important incentive to attract officers to a force that has, according to its leadership, been struggling for years to hit necessary staffing levels.
But police spending on overtime has at times raised eyebrows amid larger questions about the department’s budget, which has climbed significantly since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The department requested nearly $1 billion overall for the coming fiscal year, while Senate appropriators have proposed $855 million instead.
Only $84.8 million of that total should go toward overtime, according to a recommendation in the Senate Legislative Branch fiscal 2026 bill report, which also directs the department to keep appropriators informed of its “efforts to manage the use of overtime on a quarterly basis.”
Big events and officer training are major drivers of overtime, along with new screening procedures implemented at building entrances after a string of security lapses, former Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger told House lawmakers in April.
Manger also pointed to a shortage of sworn officers, reminding Senate appropriators in May that the department was “woefully understaffed” at the time of the Capitol attack in 2021. He outlined plans in the Capitol Police’s fiscal 2026 budget request to hire an additional 288 officers, part of an attempt to get the department to 2,530 sworn personnel.
To address that staffing issue, Senate Legislative Branch Appropriations Chair Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., suggested the department needs to look at additional training facilities to up the number of annual new hires and more quickly reach a level that requires less overtime.
“If we look at restructuring it rather than just asking for us to throw more money at it, it’s saving the taxpayer dollars,” Mullin said at the May hearing. “But we can’t do it because your recruiting classes are completely full.”
For some officers, though, overtime is a welcome way to earn more money, helping the Capitol compete for talent in a region saturated with federal law enforcement agencies. And simply hiring more people won’t solve the problem, the second officer said.
Experience and training are key, he said, especially as lawmakers grapple with security fears in the wake of this summer’s slaying of a state lawmaker in Minnesota. Yet more experienced officers are more likely to bump up against the caps because of their higher base pay.
Perennial issue
Frustration over the pay caps has come up before.
Immediately following the Jan. 6 attack, overtime spiked as the force struggled with rising threats and retention issues. During the week of the 2021 presidential inauguration, for example, the force relied on nearly 50,000 overtime hours, according to a Capitol Police inspector general report.
While waivers have raised the limit in recent years, some officers in the uniformed services division faced furloughs in December 2023 after reaching the annual cap, which at the time was $212,100. The union complained that the waiver process was uneven and lacked transparency.
Papathanasiou said in a 2023 press release that while the police board had already granted a waiver earlier that year to officers assigned to protective details, threats and intelligence, the department “did not make the same request for the uniformed officers at that time, who are on the front line in securing the Capitol complex.”
“This made absolutely no sense, as the waiver in previous years was for the entire Department, as we are suppose[d] to be one team,” he wrote.
According to some officers, the current system is overly complex and forces the rank and file to carefully monitor their schedules during each pay period or risk missing out on full pay for hours they work.
Various proposals have been floated over the years to change how the force uses overtime or to boost incentives for officers, like categorizing some overtime hours as basic pay when calculating retirement annuities. “Inclusion of overtime within retirement calculation methodology” is one topic Senate appropriators want police leadership to study further, according to their fiscal 2026 bill report.
Papathanasiou in the past has called for eliminating the biweekly cap altogether, and he reupped that suggestion this month.“I think it’s a slap in the face to officers and even supervisors who hit the biweekly pay cap and are forced to work these holidays and lose these benefits and money owed to them,” he said via text.
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