By Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is challenging one of Capitol Hill’s most uncomfortable taboos: the mental fitness of its aging lawmakers. The 37-year-old Democrat from Washington state has proposed the creation of cognitive standards for members of Congress—an effort she says reflects widespread voter frustration—but her initiative has so far been met with unanimous rejection by her colleagues.
Perez, now in her second term and serving as co-chair of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition, introduced an amendment last month to a federal spending bill that would have required lawmakers to be able to serve “unimpeded by significant irreversible cognitive impairment.” Her plan called for the Office of Congressional Conduct to develop formal standards and grant the House Ethics Committee authority to assess complaints of cognitive decline. The amendment was swiftly voted down, writes The New York Times.
“It’s not a solution that’s been widely discussed,” Perez acknowledged, attributing the measure’s failure to lawmakers’ resistance to self-regulation. It sparked an “uncomfortable conversation,” she said—but one she intends to keep alive. Perez plans to reintroduce the measure next year and is already in discussions with Republican colleagues about co-sponsoring a stand-alone bill.
The issue became especially real to Perez during a recent Appropriations Committee meeting when she found herself seated beneath a portrait of former Representative Kay Granger. Granger, a Texas Republican, reportedly resided in an assisted living facility with a memory care unit while still serving in office at age 81. “It’s concerning to sit there under a large portrait of Kay Granger,” Perez said, casting the moment as emblematic of a larger institutional failure.
Perez stressed that the problem transcends individual cases. She cited concern over colleagues such as Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, the 88-year-old nonvoting delegate from Washington, D.C., who remains in office despite signs of cognitive decline. “It’s a question of whether the elected member is making the decisions,” Perez said. “This is a systemic failure.”
Her constituents seem to agree. In a survey of her newsletter’s 230,000 subscribers, more than 90 percent voiced support for her proposal. “I hear about it at town halls; I heard a lot about it after the presidential debate,” she added, referring to President Joe Biden’s faltering 2024 performance that ultimately ended his reelection bid. Voters, Perez said, increasingly question whether their government is run by individuals capable of fulfilling their constitutional duties.
The conversation around aging lawmakers is hardly new, but it has taken on renewed urgency. Congress is older than ever, with the number of members over 70 at record levels. Critics argue that seniority rules and reluctance to relinquish power have created what some derisively call a taxpayer-funded retirement home.
Perez believes that transparency—such as making findings from cognitive evaluations public—could restore trust in government. “We have all of these rules about dumb stuff — hats — and not this more significant question of who is making decisions in the office,” Perez told The Times.
Her efforts land amid broader generational tensions within the Democratic Party. Since Biden stepped aside, younger Democrats have pushed for new leadership, pointing to moves like the Judiciary Committee’s decision to replace 77-year-old Jerrold Nadler with 61-year-old Jamie Raskin. Last year’s vote to award a key Oversight Committee post to the late Representative Gerald E. Connolly over 35-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also sparked intra-party discontent.
Still, Perez insists her proposal isn’t about ageism. “You should have members of Congress who are navigating those questions of health care and the medical conditions older people face, just like you should have pregnant women and mothers here,” she said. “That makes a stronger body.”
Though her first effort was rebuffed, Perez shows no signs of backing down. “This is not an issue that’s going away,” she explained.
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