Eleven days after Congressional leaders settled on a plan to send 15 Capitol Police employees to help in disaster relief efforts across the battered Gulf Coast region, 11 officers and four civilian staffers were scheduled to finally hit the road Saturday morning. [IMGCAP(1)]

The officers will be deployed for approximately one month and are scheduled to report to the United States Marshal Service Emergency Operations Center in Gulfport, Miss.

“The primary mission of the deployment is to assist the United States Marshal Service with law enforcement and security operations along the Gulf Coast region,” read a Capitol Police bulletin issued Friday. “Under authority of the United States Marshal Service, the officers have been deputized and given all the law enforcement powers needed to perform their requested duties.”

— John McArdle