Senate Republicans block Jan. 6 commission
Plan called for each party to appoint 5 members to panel, but GOP balked
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Friday blocked an independent, bipartisan commission to study the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
Eager to put the events of that day and former President Donald Trump’s role in it behind them, Republicans blasted the commission proposal as a partisan attempt by Democrats to keep both in the news during next year’s pivotal midterm election.
The bill fell in the first legislative filibuster of the year as it failed to get the 60 votes needed to advance. The vote was 54 to 35 to move the bill forward, with a handful of Republicans breaking ranks — Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Rob Portman of Ohio and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.
Murkowski said before the vote that the gravity of the day required senators to overlook the political fallout.
“To be making a decision for the shortterm political gain at the expense of understanding and acknowledging what was in front of us, on Jan. 6, I think we need to look at that critically,” she told reporters. “Is that really what this is about? Is everything just one election cycle after another?”
The panel would have been tasked with examining the events of Jan. 6, when thousands of people stormed the Capitol in hopes of blocking Congress from counting now-president Biden’s electoral college victory. The commission would also probe
what happened in the lead-up to the day in hopes of preventing a future occurrence.
Republicans said the panel would merely repeat what law enforcement personnel and congressional committees are already doing.
The bill’s failure marks the first successful legislative filibuster by Senate Republicans in this Congress. Democrats, who control the chamber, are under pressure from progressive lawmakers and activists to eliminate or modify the filibuster, a tool that has been used so frequently in recent years that nearly all legislation needs 60 votes to get through the chamber.
The effort has sputtered amid opposition from centrist Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Some progressives hope Republican filibusters of widely supported legislation, such as the Jan. 6 commission, would spur support to change or eliminate the filibuster.
Democrats, who patterned the proposed commission to one established after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, said a bipartisan group of experts could examine the Jan. 6 attack and the events that preceded it in a way Congress or law enforcement cannot. That may include the role social media and disinformation played in amplifying Trump’s repeated false claims that the election was stolen from him.
“If our Republican friends voted against this I would ask them, what are you afraid of? Truth. Are you afraid that Donald Trump’s big lie will be dispelled?” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor before the vote. “Are you afraid that all of the misinformation that is poured out will be regarded by a bipartisan down the middle commission? This is about a democracy.”
After the vote, Schumer accused Republicans of filibustering the commission “out of fealty or fear” of Trump.
“Shame on the Republican Party for trying to sweep the horrors of that day under the rug because they’re afraid of Donald Trump,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY., called creating the commission a “purely political exercise that adds nothing to the sum total of information.”
While Mcconnell chastised Democrats for teeing up a report that would be expected to find fault with Trump shortly ahead of midterm election, he made clear that he also is focusing on 2022.
“I think at the heart of this recommendation by the Democrats is they would like to continue to debate things that occurred in the past, like to litigate the former president into the future,” Mcconnell said. “We think the American people going forward and in the fall of ‘22 ought to focus on what this administration is doing to the country.”
Some of the six Republicans who voted yes had been vocal about their willingness to discuss a commission, with Collins crafting an amendment to address some GOP concerns, while others like Sasse and Portman came as a surprise. The vote came after the mother of an officer who died in the wake of the attack, and two police officers who fought the rioters, met with Senate Republicans this week in an attempt to gain support for the commission.