Bipartisan bickering does nothing to help
After a mob breached the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, threatening lawmakers, there was a brief sliver of bipartisan agreement that the incident called for Congressional investigation. A key question: why weren’t law enforcement agencies prepared?
As The Hill reported, rankand-file House Democrats called for a bipartisan commission that would focus on domestic terrorism and violent extremism. Top Republicans on the House Administration, Homeland Security and Oversight committees introduced legislation creating a Jan. 6 commission comprised of five Democrats and five Republicans.
At the time, Congressional leaders indicated they didn’t want a commission to be stacked with current lawmakers, which would make it more partisan.
The Jan. 6 commission “needs to be outside and it needs to be comprehensive,” a Democratic leadership source familiar with the deliberations told The Hill. “The 9/11 commission didn’t form the next day and didn’t conclude its work two weeks later.”
But partisanship is the name of the game in 2021 Washington, and two months later, hopes of a Jan. 6 commission fronted by Democrats and Republicans are fading fast.
Opportunities to squabble over party bias and what the commission would focus on were too good for lawmakers to pass up.
Now, according to Politico, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is considering her own workaround. If the bipartisan commission fails to get off the ground, she’d like to tap the House Administration, Homeland Security and Appropriations committees to take on the Jan. 6 insurrection probe. The Appropriations panel has already held hearings on the Capitol Police budget that asked questions about the force’s role in the response to the attack.
It seems at every turn, Congress finds new ways to validate so many Americans’ distrust and frustration with the government.
That it would take two months, with no result, to agree on a commission’s focus and shore up a bipartisan panel over an event that has implications for the functioning of Congress is mindboggling. Unfortunately, it’s a taste of what we can expect as the 117th Congress ramps up.
This is not what taxpayers deserve. Bickering is not part of the people’s business, but it’s a great way to grab the spotlight and score political points.
It isn’t, however, what we pay lawmakers to do.
Pelosi hasn’t completely called it a day over a bipartisan commission. She said Wednesday that her “discussion draft” proposal is a baseline for negotiations with Republicans.
“The Jan. 6 violent attack on the Capitol wasn’t really a partisan issue,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the fourth-ranking House Democrat, told reporters Wednesday. “An attack on our democracy impacts not just Democrats or Republicans or independents. It impacts all of us. I think the objective remains to try to do this in a bipartisan way.”
If this Congress is to do its job for Americans, that is work on legislation to better our lives and help the country emerge from the pandemic in a position of strength, reaching across the aisle is crucial.
“We must investigate it and we must get the truth for the American people,” Pelosi said on MSNBC.
A commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol breach is a litmus test for the legislative body’s ability to work together for the good of the nation.
It’s time for Congress to get its act together.