The United States is changing fast. Lawmakers are being forced to grapple not just with timeless questions of governance, but often with novel and rapidly-changing policy issues ranging from cryptocurrency regulation to tech monopolies to app-based labor.
That quickly shifting landscape has some doubting whether the country's aging lawmakers are up for the increasingly complicated task. The issue is stark, with a larger percentage of Congress over the age of 70 than ever before, and a long string of incidents causing constituents to question whether their elected officials are suffering cognitive decline in office.
In response, one House democrat is proposing what Axios calls a "radical solution" to those concerns: mental fitness exams for lawmakers.
The proposal is being raised by Democratic representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who was elected in 2022 to represent the 3rd district of Washington State.
Last month, Perez tried to pass an amendment to require the Office of Congressional Conduct to produce a cognitive test to assess members' "ability to perform the duties of office unimpeded by significant irreversible cognitive impairment."
Go figure, the proposal was widely unpopular with the House Appropriations Committee that voted on it — but Perez is using the momentum to continue pushing the issue.
"What I've heard from my neighbors, my community is this idea that this place is being run by a bunch of staffers," Perez told Axios, referencing elderly figures like Joe Biden and Dianne Feinstein, who leaned heavily on support staff to function while in office. "We're seeing a very real decline in confidence in Congress."
According to the Pew Research Center, the median age of a sitting US congressperson currently stands at 64.7 years old. Though Baby Boomers — which Pew defines as the generation born between 1946 and 1964 — no longer have the monopoly on congressional seats they once did, they still hold 60 of the 99 Senate spots, and 39 percent of the House.
Congress is getting so old, in fact, that eight sitting members of Congress have died in office since 2022, including 75-year old Democrat Gerry Connolly of Virginia in May, which allowed House Republicans to pass Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill by just a single vote.
81-year-old Texas Representative Kay Granger, meanwhile — who once sat on the Appropriations Committee currently roadblocking these kinds of checks — was found to have been admitted to a retirement home last year with six months left in her term.
"It’s clear people want systemic reform," said Perez. "They want accountability."
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