Gluesenkamp Perez in Axios: “People Want Systemic Reform”

<p>Earlier this month, <a href="http://gluesenkampperez.house.gov">Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03)</a> joined Axios to discuss <a href="https://appropriations.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-appropriations.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/gluesenkampperez.pdf">her amendment</a> to strengthen ethics guidelines related to the cognitive acuity of Members of Congress – which was <a href="https://gluesenkampperez.house.gov/posts/appropriations-committee-votes-down-gluesenkamp-perezs-cognitive-acuity-amendment">voted down</a> by the House Appropriations Committee last month:</p>

<p><a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/07/14/congress-age-mental-marie-gluesenkamp-perez"><strong>House Democrat floats radical solution to Congress&#8217; age problem</strong></a><br />Andrew Solender<br />July 14, 2025</p>

<p>Rep. <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/seattle/2024/11/09/gluesenkamp-perez-wins-kent-congress-washington">Marie Gluesenkamp Perez</a> is proposing something unprecedented: Having Congress&#8217; ethics office effectively adjudicate whether lawmakers are too cognitively impaired to do their jobs.</p>

<p><strong>Why it matters:</strong> The 36-year-old Washington Democrat is publicly calling out a dynamic many of her colleagues refuse to even address — arguing <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/05/22/gerry-connolly-house-democrats-age-biden">Congress&#8217; aging membership</a> is damaging the credibility of the whole institution.</p>

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<li>Gluesenkamp Perez, an auto shop owner who had never held public office before being elected to Congress in 2022, has <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/01/19/marie-gluenskamp-perez-democrats-middle-class-00078215">built a brand</a> calling out what she says is a disconnect between Washington, D.C., and everyday Americans.</li>

<li>The age issue, she told Axios in an interview at her Capitol Hill office, is just another facet of that dissonance.</li>

<li>&#8220;What I&#8217;ve heard from my neighbors, my community is this idea that this place is being run by a bunch of staffers,&#8221; she said. &#8220;And we&#8217;re seeing a very real decline in confidence in Congress.&#8221;</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Driving the news: </strong>Gluesenkamp Perez tried last month to get her proposal attached as an amendment to the House Appropriations Committee&#8217;s bill funding Congress for the next year.</p>

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<li>The amendment would require the Office of Congressional Conduct to create a standard to determine members&#8217; &#8220;ability to perform the duties of office unimpeded by significant irreversible cognitive impairment.&#8221;</li>

<li>That would open the door to ethics investigations into whether a member is mentally incapacitated to the point it is damaging to the House&#8217;s credibility.</li>

<li>Ethics investigations can result in a wide array of consequences, ranging from warnings and fines to — in the case of <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/12/01/george-santos-house-expulsion-vote">former Rep. George Santos</a> — the House voting for expulsion.</li>
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<p>Zoom in: The amendment failed in an overwhelming voice vote, with few if any members of the Appropriations Committee voting for it — a show of just how taboo the topic is.</p>

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<li>Reps. David Valadao (R-Calif.) and Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), the chair and ranking member of the legislative branch subcommittee, both spoke in opposition to it.</li>

<li>Valadao acknowledged &#8220;a lot of concern with some of our colleagues sometimes when we see some of their comments,&#8221; but argued that the House&#8217;s bi-annual elections are a sufficient referendum on lawmakers&#8217; fitness for office.</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>What they&#8217;re saying:</strong> &#8220;It&#8217;s not a comfortable thing to think about time being irreversible and how our lives change, but &#8230; real respect for our communities and the body here is [being] willing to have these honest, candid and difficult conversations,&#8221; Gluesenkamp Perez told Axios.</p>

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<li>She said the disastrous debate performance that led former <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/07/21/biden-2024-election-withdrawal-timeline-debate">President Biden to withdraw</a> from the 2024 election raised &#8220;serious concerns&#8221; in her district &#8220;that it was not their elected representatives calling the shots.&#8221;</li>

<li>Gluesenkamp Perez said that while she also supports term limits, her proposal would allow Congress to &#8220;impartially evaluate these questions&#8221; while maintaining a &#8220;representative body of all ages and experiences.&#8221;</li>
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<p><strong>Zoom out: </strong>There have been numerous examples in recent years of lawmakers in their 70s and 80s facing painfully public cognitive decline.</p>

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<li>Sen. <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/04/12/dianne-feinstein-resign-absence-judges">Dianne Feinstein</a>&#8216;s (D-Calif.) health and declining mental capabilities were a source of continued heartburn for Democrats in the years leading up to her death at 90 years old in 2023.</li>

<li>Former Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), a former Appropriations Committee chair, was revealed last year to have been <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/12/22/kay-granger-retirement-home-congress-age-debate">checked into an independent living facility</a> with 6 months left in her term.</li>

<li>Del. <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/06/16/eleanor-holmes-norton-washington-dc-congress">Eleanor Holmes Norton</a> (D-D.C.) is the latest lawmaker whose decline has been the subject of continued headlines, with the 88-year-old&#8217;s office repeatedly <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/06/25/norton-dc-re-election-seeks">walking back quotes</a> she gives to reporters.</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>The bottom line: </strong>Gluesenkamp Perez plans to continue her efforts and try to build support among her colleagues, telling Axios, &#8220;It&#8217;s clear people want systemic reform. They want accountability.&#8221;</p>

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<li>&#8220;If we are going to &#8230; persist in a system of co-equal branches of government, I think this is a really important question to take up.&#8221;</li>
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<p>The post <a href="https://gluesenkampperez.house.gov/posts/gluesenkamp-perez-in-axios-people-want-systemic-reform">Gluesenkamp Perez in Axios: “People Want Systemic Reform”</a> appeared first on <a href="https://gluesenkampperez.house.gov">Marie Gluesenkamp Perez</a>.</p>