Rising deaths in Congress highlight concerns of an aging legislative body

Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) last week became the fifth member of the 119th Congress to die in office, continuing an upward trend in the number of member deaths seen in recent years.

Scott’s death puts the current two-year session — which began January 2025 and ends January 2027 — on track to surpass recent congressional sessions: Four members died during the 118th, six died during the 117th, three died during the 116th, three died during the 115th, two died during the 114th, and two died during the 113th.

In the decade before that, from 2003 to 2013, each session saw a maximum of one member die, with the 110th Congress a notable outlier at eight.

After a lull in the 2000s and early 2010s, deaths in Congress have begun to tick back up, renewing concerns about the cost of an aging legislative body as both parties grapple with calls for younger leadership.

Several factors likely contribute to the recent uptick. Gregory Koger, a political science professor at the University of Miami and director of its Hanley Democracy Center, said the rise corresponds with an aging Congress and few incentives to retire.

“People are living longer,” Koger told The Hill. “There aren’t a lot of forces driving people out of politics, other than whether or not their district is close, in partisan terms.”

“If you’ve got a member of Congress, who is in a safe seat, there isn’t a strong mechanism to encourage them to retire when they have reached the limits of their health or their energy or their interest in the job,” he continued. “So, a lot of them do stay on.”

The 119th Congress is one of the oldest on record, with a median age of 57.5 in the House and 64.7 in the Senate, according to  Pew Research Center . The current session skews slightly younger than past years after some older members died and younger members were elected.

The uptick in deaths comes amid a broader reckoning in American politics over the aging legislative body. While critics say age alone is not disqualifying, several high-profile cases of lawmakers appearing to struggle in their posts due to apparent age-related ailments have fueled voter frustration.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)  froze twice  while taking questions from reporters in 2023, episodes that drew widespread concern. McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in history, later stepped down from leadership but remains in office at 84. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) served until the day she died at 90 in 2023, despite taking a three-month medical hiatus amid mounting concerns about her mental capabilities.

For Democrats, the issue came to a head in 2024, when then-President Biden struggled in a presidential debate and faced immediate calls within the party to step aside.

Biden’s performance stunned many Democrats in Washington, though many voters said it confirmed concerns they had long held.

“Honestly, I don’t think Democrats have recovered from acting like there was no problem with Biden,” Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) told The Hill in an interview.

“Democratic voters have not forgiven the party, and memory is long. It sometimes feels like electeds think you can piss on someone’s leg and tell them it’s raining, and people do not enjoy that,” the 37-year-old Democrat added.

“People are smart,” she continued. “They know what they know, and they saw what they saw in that debate. And I do think it’s important to be forthcoming and say, ‘There is a problem, and we’re making concrete progress on resolving it.’”

Members and activists have put forward proposals to ensure elected officials can effectively serve their constituents.

Gluesenkamp Perez has pushed for the Office of Congressional Conduct to develop a standard to evaluate whether a member can carry out their duties “unimpeded by significant and irreversible cognitive decline,” and plans to reintroduce the measure as an amendment during this year’s appropriations process.

For some activists, concerns about an aging Congress extend beyond members’ mental fitness to broader questions of representation.

David Hogg, a 25-year-old progressive activist and former DNC vice chair, has led calls to elect younger leaders, challenging the party structure that he says favors the establishment.

At an  event earlier this month  hosted by the Yale Political Union, Hogg called for “ending the gerontocracy,” which he defined as a “system run by the old, for the old.”

He pointed to structural barriers facing younger candidates, noting there is only one member of Congress under 30, saying, “Right now, the status quo has allowed older Americans to monopolize the seats of power.”

Hogg said, however, he opposes upper age limits for members.

“That’s wrong,” he said. “Our goal should not be to simply bar older people from holding office.”

“We must remove the money in politics that proves advantageous for older generations, not on the grounds of merit, but resources. It is not that those who have the best ideas get elected. It is those with the biggest war chests, more often than not. And that is wrong.”

Koger echoed some of those concerns about representation but said the consequences can be more far-reaching.

“There’s a lot of representation that you don’t see: Going to meetings, speaking at public events, going to committee meetings. If they can’t do those things, then they’re poorly representing their districts,” Koger said.

“A lot of members of Congress are just sticking around until they die,” he added. “And dying in Congress often means a year or two years of medical incapacity.”

There is bipartisan appetite for enforcement mechanisms to ensure members can effectively serve their constituents, with  2023 polling  showing mental competency tests for politicians over 75 backed by 84 percent of Republicans and 70 percent of Democrats.

During the 2024 primary, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley — the last candidate standing against Trump for the GOP nomination — made age and mental fitness central to her campaign, calling for candidates over 75 to take cognitive tests.

Gluesenkamp Perez said the issue remains relevant today and both parties should heed voters’ warnings about the need for accountability.

“I don’t think it really is a partisan issue, but I think it is really important, whatever party picks this up and runs with it is going to have, I think, a much stronger trust advantage when they’re willing to hold their people accountable and really have a strong standard,” the congresswoman said.

Koger said it’s unclear what it would take to drive structural change, noting Feinstein “wasn’t able to make medical decisions for herself, but she was making policy decisions for the entire country towards the end.”

“That’s not right,” the political scientist said. “So, I think we are seeing the circumstances that ought to lead to some sort of solution and just haven’t seen either congressional party respond.”

Updated at 10:10 a.m. EDT.

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