House to vote soon on bills to protect Capitol after Jan. 6

WASHINGTON — The House is expected to vote next week on legislation aimed at preventing more attacks on the U.S. Capitol, seeking to establish a 9/11style commission to study what went wrong on Jan. 6 while allocating $1.9 billion to address the security problems revealed by the insurrection.

The top Democrat and the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee on Friday unveiled their plan to form the commission after weeks of delicate negotiations. Modeled after the revered investigation into the 9/11 terrorist attacks, their bill would establish an independent 10-member commission, evenly divided between the two parties, that would have subpoena power and an endof-year deadline for completing its work.

Efforts to stand up the commission had previously stalled amid partisan differences, with Republicans — including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell — arguing that its scope should be widened to look at violence in cities around the country in the past year in reaction to the killing of George Floyd while in police custody. But the new bill appeared to be a breakthrough after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the legislation must be bipartisan.

The emergency spending bill was also released Friday, a product of months of reviews about what is needed to “harden” security at the Capitol after the violent mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters pushed past police officers and broke through windows and doors on Jan. 6.