(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Following a bulletin regarding a potential March 4 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Capitol Police will be asking the National Guard to extend their stay in Washington D.C.  The request has not yet arrived, but a Pentagon official is aware it is pending.

Currently, 5,000 National Guardsmen are stationed at the U.S. Capitol, which is down from the 25,000 who were called into the city following the January 6 insurrection and the January 20 inauguration.

Lawmakers will continue debating the appropriate defense needed on Capitol grounds, as they are already surrounded by high fences with razor wire on top.  

Michigan Representative  Elaine Slotkin, a Democrat, stated Thursday, “No one likes seeing the fortress-like security around the Capitol. And no one wants to again have a security problem in and around this symbolic place. But whether an extension has been requested or the mission is indeed terminating on March 12, it’s critical that members of Congress get a briefing on what’s behind these decisions.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke about whether or not there is a need for the National Guard to remain on site and, on Thursday, announced that “decisions about security are made by the security leadership here, and we’ll see what that ask is.”

“We should have them here as long as they are needed, and the silliness of this being Inauguration Day … falls into the realm of let’s not waste our time on it,” she added.

As previously reported, FBI Director Christopher Wray sounded the alarm of the nation’s growing domestic terrorism threat on Tuesday, saying the threat level has been on the rise for “a number of years now.”

Wray also spoke about the January 6 seige of the U.S. Capitol, adding, “That siege was criminal behavior, plain and simple and his behavior that we, the FBI view as domestic terrorism. It’s got no place in our democracy and tolerating it would make a mockery of our nation’s rule of law.”