National Guard soldiers across the country are preparing to help secure Washington, D.C., after Election Day. So far, no one has asked them to show up.
Now, almost four years after the unprecedented attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Washington is anticipating heightened security after the presidential election to ensure a peaceful transfer of power. The actual plan, as it stands now, however, is tangled in a web of bureaucracy between the city, the Pentagon and the Secret Service.
For the greater part of the year, the National Guard and law enforcement have been prepping to protect the nation’s capital in January 2025. NOTUS identified several National Guard units that have been undergoing riot and crowd control training, including those from New York and Virginia.
According to at least two of the units, preparations are underway to support the eventual request for assistance. D.C.’s police department has also sent out requests for a total of 4,000 police from across the country to augment the Metropolitan Police and Capitol Police departments.
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All of these groups are waiting for the call to pack their bags for D.C.
Ultimately, the Secret Service is in charge of managing security concerns on Jan. 6, 2025, when the election results will be certified, and on Inauguration Day. Both days have been designated as “national special security events.” However, the Secret Service hasn’t publicly asked for additional support beyond its own ranks.
For the National Guard to operate in D.C. an official “request for assistance” has to go through the office of the Secretary of Defense. It’s not clear where that request will come from.
The National Guard, Department of Defense and the D.C. mayor’s office all directed NOTUS to the Secret Service for questions about the scale of support the official “request for assistance” would need. The Secret Service did not respond to a request for comment.
But last week, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she may make the request to the Pentagon for additional National Guard soldiers.
“We may even do something that we haven’t done, a kind of advance, a preliminary request,” Bowser said last week. She’s considering making that request “to give DOD a little more time to make their plans.”
Unlike a state governor, Bowser doesn’t have direct access to National Guard units; she has to go through the Pentagon to make the request.
Either the District of Columbia Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency or the Secret Service could make the request. The National Guard doesn’t know yet which one will.
“We don’t currently have a Request for Assistance, and we won’t speculate on potential requirements if and when an RFA comes,” a National Guard Bureau spokesperson told NOTUS in a statement.
For now, everyone is working toward ensuring they can have a “scalable response.” The goal is to be able to react to demands for Guard support quickly, from a few hundred to several thousand, but not overwhelm the city with troops.
“The Guard has leaned forward over the past year in terms of facilitating planning for how to support a mission in support of the inauguration,” Robert Carver, a National Guard spokesperson, told NOTUS. It’s not unusual for preparations to go on through most of the year gearing up for an inauguration, even without a request for assistance.
As Carver put it, “The Guard has been part of the inauguration of a president since the first inauguration honoring President George Washington.”
The logistics alone for having soldiers come to D.C. around these major events is challenging. Feeding and transporting several thousand people is a major undertaking already being planned. Housing for the soldiers expected to come to D.C. is sparse.
“Hotel rooms are already at a premium,” Carver said.
Bowser’s office, too, is involved in the process, even though the Secret Service has taken charge overall.
“The United States Capitol Police are prepared to ensure a peaceful transfer of power at the Capitol,” Bowser said. “Regardless of the victor.”
She added that there is currently no perceived threat to the nation’s capital, though her office is debating options for increased presence.
“In many respects, our preparations for 2024 started on Jan, 7, 2021,” Bowser’s assistant city administrator, Christopher Rodriguez, said.
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John T. Seward is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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