Feds Ratchet Up Security For Electoral Vote Certification On January 6

Federal authorities announced this week an increase in security around Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2025, when lawmakers in Congress count and certify the 2024 presidential electoral votes following the U.S. Capitol riot in 2021.

The Secret Service said this is the first time a National Special Security Event (NSSE) has been granted by the Homeland Security Department for the certification process, following a request from the D.C. mayor and reports suggesting it.

“National Special Security Events are events of the highest national significance,” Eric Ranaghan, the Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Dignitary Protective Division, declared in a statement on Wednesday.

He added the Secret Service along with federal, state, and local partners are “committed to developing and implementing a comprehensive and integrated security plan to ensure the safety and security of this event and its participants.”

POLITICO and local CBS affiliate WUSA9 noted other events that have received the level of security provided by an NSSE designation include the Super Bowl, United Nations General Assembly, NATO summit, and presidential inauguration.

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The Secret Service said it will take the lead with the NSSE on January 6, which will allow for “significant resources from the federal government, as well as from state and local partners, to be utilized in a comprehensive security plan.”

More than 1,000 people have been prosecuted by the Department of Justice in connection to the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. Former President Donald Trump and his critics in Congress have traded blame for the chaos of that day.

The NSSE designation “will help us build on the plans that we have already put into place to protect the Members of Congress and the Constitutional process on January 6,” the U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement on Thursday.

“Our Department has made more than 100 improvements during the last few years to prepare for anything,” the Capitol Police noted while stressing how it is working with law enforcement partners to “ensure” a smooth certification process.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) expressed approval of the January 6 decision, saying “this designation by national security professionals seems to have been necessary” while placing blame on “extreme MAGA Republicans.”

In this year’s presidential election, Trump is facing off against Vice President Kamala Harris, who in 2022 compared the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, to mass casualty events 9/11 and Pearl Harbor, as The Daily Wire recently noted.