The publication is reproduced in full below:
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ESTABLISHING THE SELECT COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE JANUARY 6TH ATTACK
ON THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 504, I call up the resolution (H. Res. 503) establishing the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 504, the resolution is considered read.
The text of the resolution is as follows:
H. Res. 503
Whereas January 6, 2021, was one of the darkest days of our democracy, during which insurrectionists attempted to impede Congress's Constitutional mandate to validate the presidential election and launched an assault on the United States Capitol Complex that resulted in multiple deaths, physical harm to over 140 members of law enforcement, and terror and trauma among staff, institutional employees, press, and Members;
Whereas, on January 27, 2021, the Department of Homeland Security issued a National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin that due to the ``heightened threat environment across the United States,'' in which ``[S]ome ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence.'' The Bulletin also stated that--
(1) ``DHS is concerned these same drivers to violence will remain through early 2021 and some DVEs [domestic violent extremists] may be emboldened by the January 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. to target elected officials and government facilities.''; and
(2) ``Threats of violence against critical infrastructure, including the electric, telecommunications and healthcare sectors, increased in 2020 with violent extremists citing misinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 for their actions'';
Whereas, on September 24, 2020, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Christopher Wray testified before the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives that--
(1) ``[T]he underlying drivers for domestic violent extremism - such as perceptions of government or law enforcement overreach, sociopolitical conditions, racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, misogyny, and reactions to legislative actions - remain constant.'';
(2) ``[W]ithin the domestic terrorism bucket category as a whole, racially-motivated violent extremism is, I think, the biggest bucket within the larger group. And within the racially-motivated violent extremists bucket, people subscribing to some kind of white supremacist-type ideology is certainly the biggest chunk of that.''; and
(3) ``More deaths were caused by DVEs than international terrorists in recent years. In fact, 2019 was the deadliest year for domestic extremist violence since the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995'';
Whereas, on April 15, 2021, Michael Bolton, the Inspector General for the United States Capitol Police, testified to the Committee on House Administration of the House of Representatives that--
(1) ``The Department lacked adequate guidance for operational planning. USCP did not have policy and procedures in place that communicated which personnel were responsible for operational planning, what type of operational planning documents its personnel should prepare, nor when its personnel should prepare operational planning documents.''; and
(2) ``USCP failed to disseminate relevant information obtained from outside sources, lacked consensus on interpretation of threat analyses, and disseminated conflicting intelligence information regarding planned events for January 6, 2021.''; and
Whereas the security leadership of the Congress under- prepared for the events of January 6th, with United States Capitol Police Inspector General Michael Bolton testifying again on June 15, 2021, that--
(1) ``USCP did not have adequate policies and procedures for FRU (First Responder Unit) defining its overall operations. Additionally, FRU lacked resources and training for properly completing its mission.'';
(2) ``The Department did not have adequate policies and procedures for securing ballistic helmets and vests strategically stored around the Capitol Complex.''; and
(3) ``FRU did not have the proper resources to complete its mission.'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved,
SECTION 1. ESTABLISHMENT.
There is hereby established the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (hereinafter referred to as the ``Select Committee'').
SEC. 2. COMPOSITION.
(a) Appointment of Members.--The Speaker shall appoint 13 Members to the Select Committee, 5 of whom shall be appointed after consultation with the minority leader.
(b) Designation of Chair.--The Speaker shall designate one Member to serve as chair of the Select Committee.
(c) Vacancies.--Any vacancy in the Select Committee shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointment.
SEC. 3. PURPOSES.
Consistent with the functions described in section 4, the purposes of the Select Committee are the following:
(1) To investigate and report upon the facts, circumstances, and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex (hereafter referred to as the ``domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol'') and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power, including facts and causes relating to the preparedness and response of the United States Capitol Police and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies in the National Capital Region and other instrumentalities of government, as well as the influencing factors that fomented such an attack on American representative democracy while engaged in a constitutional process.
(2) To examine and evaluate evidence developed by relevant Federal, State, and local governmental agencies regarding the facts and circumstances surrounding the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol and targeted violence and domestic terrorism relevant to such terrorist attack.
(3) To build upon the investigations of other entities and avoid unnecessary duplication of efforts by reviewing the investigations, findings, conclusions, and recommendations of other executive branch, congressional, or independent bipartisan or nonpartisan commission investigations into the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol, including investigations into influencing factors related to such attack.
SEC. 4. FUNCTIONS.
(a) Functions.--The functions of the Select Committee are to--
(1) investigate the facts, circumstances, and causes relating to the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol, including facts and circumstances relating to--
(A) activities of intelligence agencies, law enforcement agencies, and the Armed Forces, including with respect to intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination and information sharing among the branches and other instrumentalities of government;
(B) influencing factors that contributed to the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol and how technology, including online platforms, financing, and malign foreign influence operations and campaigns may have factored into the motivation, organization, and execution of the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol; and
(C) other entities of the public and private sector as determined relevant by the Select Committee for such investigation;
(2) identify, review, and evaluate the causes of and the lessons learned from the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol regarding--
(A) the command, control, and communications of the United States Capitol Police, the Armed Forces, the National Guard, the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies in the National Capital Region on or before January 6, 2021;
(B) the structure, coordination, operational plans, policies, and procedures of the Federal Government, including as such relate to State and local governments and nongovernmental entities, and particularly with respect to detecting, preventing, preparing for, and responding to targeted violence and domestic terrorism;
(C) the structure, authorities, training, manpower utilization, equipment, operational planning, and use of force policies of the United States Capitol Police;
(D) the policies, protocols, processes, procedures, and systems for the sharing of intelligence and other information by Federal, State, and local agencies with the United States Capitol Police, the Sergeants at Arms of the House of Representatives and Senate, the Government of the District of Columbia, including the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, the National Guard, and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies in the National Capital Region on or before January 6, 2021, and the related policies, protocols, processes, procedures, and systems for monitoring, assessing, disseminating, and acting on intelligence and other information, including elevating the security posture of the United States Capitol Complex, derived from instrumentalities of government, open sources, and online platforms; and
(E) the policies, protocols, processes, procedures, and systems for interoperability between the United States Capitol Police and the National Guard, the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies in the National Capital Region on or before January 6, 2021; and
(3) issue a final report to the House containing such findings, conclusions, and recommendations for corrective measures described in subsection (c) as it may deem necessary.
(b) Reports.--
(1) Interim reports.--In addition to the final report addressing the matters in subsection (a) and section 3, the Select Committee may report to the House or any committee of the House from time to time the results of its investigations, together with such detailed findings and legislative recommendations as it may deem advisable.
(2) Treatment of classified or law enforcement-sensitive matter.--Any report issued by the Select Committee shall be issued in unclassified form but may include a classified annex, a law enforcement-sensitive annex, or both.
(c) Corrective Measures Described.--The corrective measures described in this subsection may include changes in law, policy, procedures, rules, or regulations that could be taken--
(1) to prevent future acts of violence, domestic terrorism, and domestic violent extremism, including acts targeted at American democratic institutions;
(2) to improve the security posture of the United States Capitol Complex while preserving accessibility of the Capitol Complex for all Americans; and
(3) to strengthen the security and resilience of the United States and American democratic institutions against violence, domestic terrorism, and domestic violent extremism.
(d) No Markup of Legislation Permitted.--The Select Committee may not hold a markup of legislation.
SEC. 5. PROCEDURE.
(a) Access to Information From Intelligence Community.-- Notwithstanding clause 3(m) of rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the Select Committee is authorized to study the sources and methods of entities described in clause 11(b)(1)(A) of rule X insofar as such study is related to the matters described in sections 3 and 4.
(b) Treatment of Classified Information.--Clause 11(b)(4), clause 11(e), and the first sentence of clause 11(f) of rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives shall apply to the Select Committee.
(c) Applicability of Rules Governing Procedures of Committees.--Rule XI of the Rules of the House of Representatives shall apply to the Select Committee except as follows:
(1) Clause 2(a) of rule XI shall not apply to the Select Committee.
(2) Clause 2(g)(2)(D) of rule XI shall apply to the Select Committee in the same manner as it applies to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
(3) Pursuant to clause 2(h) of rule XI, two Members of the Select Committee shall constitute a quorum for taking testimony or receiving evidence and one-third of the Members of the Select Committee shall constitute a quorum for taking any action other than one for which the presence of a majority of the Select Committee is required.
(4) The chair of the Select Committee may authorize and issue subpoenas pursuant to clause 2(m) of rule XI in the investigation and study conducted pursuant to sections 3 and 4 of this resolution, including for the purpose of taking depositions.
(5) The chair of the Select Committee is authorized to compel by subpoena the furnishing of information by interrogatory.
(6)(A) The chair of the Select Committee, upon consultation with the ranking minority member, may order the taking of depositions, including pursuant to subpoena, by a Member or counsel of the Select Committee, in the same manner as a standing committee pursuant to section 3(b)(1) of House Resolution 8, One Hundred Seventeenth Congress.
(B) Depositions taken under the authority prescribed in this paragraph shall be governed by the procedures submitted by the chair of the Committee on Rules for printing in the Congressional Record on January 4, 2021.
(7) Subpoenas authorized pursuant to this resolution may be signed by the chair of the Select Committee or a designee.
(8) The chair of the Select Committee may, after consultation with the ranking minority member, recognize--
(A) Members of the Select Committee to question a witness for periods longer than five minutes as though pursuant to clause 2(j)(2)(B) of rule XI; and
(B) staff of the Select Committee to question a witness as though pursuant to clause 2(j)(2)(C) of rule XI.
(9) The chair of the Select Committee may postpone further proceedings when a record vote is ordered on questions referenced in clause 2(h)(4) of rule XI, and may resume proceedings on such postponed questions at any time after reasonable notice. Notwithstanding any intervening order for the previous question, an underlying proposition shall remain subject to further debate or amendment to the same extent as when the question was postponed.
(10) The provisions of paragraphs (f)(1) through (f)(12) of clause 4 of rule XI shall apply to the Select Committee.
SEC. 6. RECORDS; STAFF; TRAVEL; FUNDING.
(a) Sharing Records of Committees.--Any committee of the House of Representatives having custody of records in any form relating to the matters described in sections 3 and 4 shall provide copies of such records to the Select Committee not later than 14 days of the adoption of this resolution or receipt of such records. Such records shall become the records of the Select Committee.
(b) Staff.--The appointment and the compensation of staff for the Select Committee shall be subject to regulations issued by the Committee on House Administration.
(c) Detail of Staff of Other Offices.--Staff of employing entities of the House or a joint committee may be detailed to the Select Committee to carry out this resolution and shall be deemed to be staff of the Select Committee.
(d) Use of Consultants Permitted.--Section 202(i) of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 4301(i)) shall apply with respect to the Select Committee in the same manner as such section applies with respect to a standing committee of the House of Representatives.
(e) Travel.--Clauses 8(a), (b), and (c) of rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives shall apply to the Select Committee.
(f) Funding; Payments.--There shall be paid out of the applicable accounts of the House of Representatives such sums as may be necessary for the expenses of the Select Committee. Such payments shall be made on vouchers signed by the chair of the Select Committee and approved in the manner directed by the Committee on House Administration. Amounts made available under this subsection shall be expended in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Committee on House Administration.
SEC. 7. TERMINATION AND DISPOSITION OF RECORDS.
(a) Termination.--The Select Committee shall terminate 30 days after filing the final report under section 4.
(b) Disposition of Records.--Upon termination of the Select Committee--
(1) the records of the Select Committee shall become the records of such committee or committees designated by the Speaker; and
(2) the copies of records provided to the Select Committee by a committee of the House under section 6(a) shall be returned to the committee.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The resolution shall be debatable for 1 hour, equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Rules or their respective designees.
The gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) and the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Mrs. Fischbach) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Massachusetts.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, 175 days ago, as we gathered here in this spot, the House floor became a crime scene. The U.S. Capitol, this temple of democracy, was ransacked. Property was damaged, and more importantly, lives were lost.
Insurrectionists tried to stop our democracy in its tracks. A mob wanted to prevent the certification of a free and fair election in America, and they resorted to violence to do it.
I will never forget that day. I was one of the last Members off this House floor, as we were being taken to a secure location away from the mayhem.
As I was walking out, I looked over and saw these people--homegrown terrorists, I call them--literally smashing the doors with their bare fists and breaking the glass to try to get at us.
They weren't here to peacefully protest. They were fueled by rage and here to cause harm. I looked in their eyes, and I saw hate.
Many of my colleagues feared for their lives. Some called loved ones to say good-bye. The staff that worked here barricaded their office doors. They ran down these marble halls, trying one door after the next, just searching for safety. Others hid in closets, terrified.
When those of us who are elected to Congress put our names on the ballot, we are prepared to take all kinds of incoming. But the staff here--the cafeteria workers, the cleaning crew, the people who make our democracy function day in and day out--they do not. But, still, they found themselves in danger, afraid for their lives.
We must speak the truth of what happened that day, Madam Speaker. Shockingly, there is an effort by some in this Congress to whitewash and minimize what went on. One of my colleagues even suggested it was somehow just a normal tourist visit, as if facts don't matter, as if we all didn't see with our own eyes what happened.
History will judge how we respond to the events of that day, and the glare of history should be cast most harshly on the minority leader, who worked overtime to prevent a bipartisan, bicameral commission from being formed to examine what happened on January 6.
A bipartisan commission emerged out of the Homeland Security Committee with a bipartisan vote. Everything the minority leader asked for in this commission, he got it. He got it all. But then, I guess, Donald Trump called him, and he began walking back his support and whipping against his own ranking member's bipartisan deal.
It has been 25 weeks since an insurrection in our country. A commission should be already at work right now, getting the facts about this attack on our democracy so it will never, ever, ever happen again.
Sadly, a majority of Republicans objected to that happening. Now, they may have delayed uncovering the truth, Madam Speaker. But, Madam Speaker, the truth will not stay buried forever. That is why we are here today, because the facts matter.
A select committee will finally get to the truth about the events of January 6. It is modeled after a select committee formed when my Republican colleagues were in charge.
I hope I am wrong, but if past is prologue, many of my Republican friends will stand up today and say no. They will oppose this select committee and say they want a different approach.
Well, let me again remind them: We already gave them exactly what they asked for with the commission, and even that wasn't good enough. I think, for some on the other side, nothing that gets to the truth will ever be good enough because they do not want the truth.
Michael Fanone, a Metropolitan Police Department officer for nearly two decades, responded to the insurrection on January 6. In a letter that he wrote to all of us, he said: ``I struggle daily with the emotional anxiety of having survived such a traumatic event, but I also struggle with the anxiety of hearing those who continue to downplay the events of that day and those who would ignore them altogether with their lack of acknowledgment. The indifference shown to my colleagues and I is disgraceful.''
Madam Speaker, I include the full text of his letter in the Record.
May 5, 2021.
To All Elected Members of the United States Government, My name is Michael Fanone and I have been a sworn officer with the Metropolitan Police Department for almost two decades. On January 06, 2021, I participated in the defense of the United States Capitol and as a result of my efforts was severely injured. I was pulled out into the crowd, away from my fellow officers, beaten with fists, metal objects, stripped of my issued badge, radio and ammunition magazine and electrocuted numerous times with a Taser. I am writing to you so that you may better understand my experience that day.
I am assigned to the First District's Crime Suppression Team and while my daily responsibilities involve combating violent crime and narcotics related offenses. I, like many other officers, took it upon myself to respond to the numerous calls for help coming from my colleagues at the Capitol Complex. Upon my arrival my partner, Jimmy Albright, and I searched for an area where we could be of most assistance and eventually found our way to the West Terrace Lower Tunnel entrance to the Capitol. The fighting here was nothing short of brutal. I observed approximately thirty police officers standing shoulder-to-shoulder maybe four or five abreast using the weight of their own bodies to hold back the onslaught of violent attackers. Many of these officers were injured, bleeding and fatigued but they continued to fight.
In the midst of this fighting, I observed Commander Ramey Kyle, cool, calm, and collected giving commands to his officers. ``Hold the line.'' It was the most inspirational moment of my entire life. Even as I write this it brings me to tears. I tried to render assistance to some of the injured officers asking them if they needed a break. There were no volunteers, only those that identified injured colleagues who may be in need of assistance. I have never experienced such bravery, courage and selflessness.
Since then I have struggled with many aspects of that day. As the physical injuries gradually subsided in crept the psychological trauma. In many ways I still live my life as if it is January 07, 2021. I struggle daily with the emotional anxiety of having survived such a traumatic event but I also struggle with the anxiety of hearing those who continue to downplay the events of that day and those who would ignore them altogether with their lack of acknowledgement. The indifference shown to my colleagues and I is disgraceful.
It has been 119 days since 850 Metropolitan Police (MPDC) Officers responded to the Capitol and stopped a violent insurrection from taking over the Capitol Complex saving countless Members of Congress and their staff from almost certain injury and even death. The time to fully recognize these Officers actions is NOW!
Sincerely,
Michael Fanone.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I am tired of the delays. Quite frankly, I am sick and tired of the fact that there are too many people in this Chamber who continue to put party over country and propagate the lies, distortions, and falsehoods that led to January 6. It is disgusting.
For Congress to do nothing in response to a literal insurrection would allow our democracy to be chipped away at from the inside. Not on my watch.
Our system of government is fragile. It is not a given; it is a choice. Looking down on us from the gallery right now are representatives of the D.C. Metropolitan Police and the U.S. Capitol Police, and I want to thank them and their colleagues for their service and for protecting us and our democracy on January 6.
To my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who are about to vote
``no'' on this, please, no lectures on respect for the police because a
``no'' vote is a vote to cover for those who brutally attacked the police on January 6.
I say to my colleagues in this House, they will be watching as we cast our votes. History will be watching. I pray that we have the moral courage to do what is right, that we choose truth and that we choose to defend our democracy.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to H. Res. 503, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.
There is no doubt that what transpired on January 6 was a dark day, but instead of a good-faith effort to reach an objective conclusion, Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats have placed partisan, divisive politics ahead of the interests of the American people.
Most fundamental to any objective investigation is being free from political influence and partisan bias. Unfortunately, this resolution fails to meet that basic benchmark, as Democrats refuse to put together a truly bipartisan commission, with equal authority given to all members, not just the majority.
It appears my colleagues are more interested in reaching the predetermined outcome of their own narrative than truly investigating the January 6 attack. The resolution itself is full of charged language that implies an outcome.
In fact, two bipartisan committees in the Senate have already conducted wide-ranging investigations and issued their joint report. Their report, which is more than 100 pages, outlines a timeline of events and a series of recommendations for moving forward.
The Architect of the Capitol has also already been given $10 million to investigate the security failures on January 6. Why are we replicating that work?
The Department of Justice and the FBI have already arrested and charged more than 500 people for crimes ranging from disorderly conduct to theft of government property to assaulting a Federal law enforcement officer. Those individuals are being adjudicated by the courts as we speak. That process will continue for some time. That is the way it should work.
Instead, Democrats are injecting partisanship into the equation, hoping to stretch out an investigation long enough to distract from their abject failure to govern, while the American people are left to suffer the consequences of that failure.
While we spend time discussing this partisan committee, American farmers are facing a severe drought, gas prices are going up, inflation is rising, businesses can't find employees, and there is a crisis at the southern border. We need to spend our time finding solutions and helping Americans, not creating partisan commissions to do work that has already been done competently by the U.S. Senate and by law enforcement.
Not only would this select committee not prohibit interfering with ongoing law enforcement investigations that are already yielding significant results, but it would lack the enforcement powers of those existing investigations. Even worse, Speaker Pelosi would have the ability to handpick the entirety of the committee.
If Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats were serious about this, they might have considered acting sooner than 6 months after the fact. The standing committees of this body already have the jurisdiction and the authority to investigate January 6, and the Speaker could have directed them to open an investigation at any time.
But perhaps most important is our obligation to the brave men and women of law enforcement who responded to the Capitol and surrounding areas on January 6, members of the U.S. Capitol Police, the D.C. Metropolitan Police, the National Guard, and the many other State and Federal agencies who assisted in restoring order. We owe it to them to ensure that any investigation we undertake is one that is fair, bipartisan, and honorable, absent the ulterior motives and partisan politics that so often plague us.
Unfortunately, Madam Speaker, H. Res. 503 falls far short. For that reason, I oppose the legislation, and I urge other Members to do so.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Oh, my God, I can't believe what I just heard. I mean, my Republican colleagues are talking about the need for bipartisanship. We gave them bipartisanship. The ranking Republican member on the Homeland Security Committee endorsed a bipartisan commission, and my friends on the other side, including the gentlewoman who just spoke, voted ``no'' on it.
Now, they are objecting to a select committee that we are forming that is exactly like the select committee that they formed when they were in charge. Give me a break.
This is clear--people should know this--they don't want to get to the truth. But we will insist that we get to the truth.
Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi
(Mr. Thompson), the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, who did such an incredible job in negotiating a bipartisan commission.
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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I rise in support of H. Res. 503, a measure Establishing the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
Next week will mark 6 months since the world watched in horror as Americans violently stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from carrying out its constitutional duty to certify a Presidential election.
Like many of my colleagues, I had hoped that the Republican Senators would put country over politics and support legislation to establish a bipartisan, independent commission just as 35 House Republicans did in May.
I had hoped they would do so, just as a previous generation of Senators did in response to the 9/11 terrorist attack.
Instead, our bipartisan, good faith proposal was met with a filibuster. Now that Senate Republicans have chosen to block the formation of an independent commission, it falls to the House to stay the course and get the American people the answers they deserve.
I commend the Speaker for introducing this measure and offering us a way forward.
I believe that with the right Members, staff and resources, and cooperation from Federal, State, and local partners and the private sector, this select committee will be well-positioned to do vital oversight work into why our information-sharing, counterterrorism, and coordination efforts failed so catastrophically on January 6.
In addition to that, I salute the men and women who protected us on that day. Some of us were in this very building at the time, some of us in the gallery. I find it incomprehensible that people would deny what occurred and now try to deflect by talking about other issues.
This is the citadel of democracy we are standing in right now. We have to protect it. I urge my colleagues to join me in voting to protect this temple of democracy by voting in favor of H. Res. 503.
Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I will remind the gentleman from Mississippi that it was not this body that stopped the commission. It did not receive the required support from both sides of the aisle in the Senate to move forward.
Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess).
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
This resolution establishes a select committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol. After Speaker Pelosi's first attempt at a commission failed to pass the Senate, she is now pushing a resolution to create, what will be by its very nature, a very partisan select committee.
The outcome of this investigation has, in fact, already been written. The Democrats have been publicly excoriating President Trump for months. They claim we need to understand the root cause of what happened on January 6, but the truth is, they have already laid the blame.
I was concerned that the commission that the Speaker previously attempted to create would, in fact, have been very partisan in nature. That is why I and many other Members of this body and Members of the Senate voted against her resolution.
The Speaker attempted to establish what she claimed would be a bipartisan commission to investigate the events of January 6 modeled after the 9/11 Commission, but there are some key differences between the two.
The 9/11 Commission focused on a foreign attack on the homeland. The proposed January 6 commission would have focused on a purely domestic event.
The fact pattern for these two events is entirely different. For the 9/11 Commission we did not definitely know at the outset who had perpetrated that attack. Unfortunately, as we know, Democrats have already laid the blame for the January 6 attack before any investigative body has been established.
The staff composition for the Speaker's proposed January 6 commission mirrored that of the 9/11 Commission, however, the January 6 commission would have ultimately been one party investigating the other. The biggest concern of Republicans is that only one staff would have served the entire January 6 commission. In an inherently partisan investigation, Congress should authorize two separate staffs to serve the Members of each party. And, in fact, I attempted to amend that original resolution at the Rules Committee but was turned away.
Whether or not you blame President Trump for the events of January 6, the fact remains that the incident was a massive security failure.
Why were our United States Capitol Police Officers, who sacrifice every day to protect us, caught so unprepared?
Why did the National Guard take so long to mobilize when the threat was clear?
What was known by our intelligence agencies and the Sergeant at Arms in the days leading up to January 6?
These are the questions that need answering if we are truly going to be focused on preventing another security failure. And I won't reiterate the litany that the gentlewoman from Minnesota has already elucidated.
If we don't do it, it is not that there are no investigations; the investigations are ongoing. The Department of Justice--the FBI has a major investigation, as has already been pointed out. 500 people are incarcerated and waiting adjudication, waiting for their day in court.
I am disappointed that the Democrats remain fixated on laying blame, rather than investigating how we can better prepare our United States Capitol Police and our other Federal response forces to face future threats. There will be future threats. For these reasons, I urge opposition to this resolution.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues on the other side to stop the lame excuses. Now they are blaming the Senate?
Let's go over the chronology: Leader McCarthy had a bunch of demands in order that we move forward with a bipartisan commission. We gave him every one.
And then what happened is, I guess, he didn't expect us to actually work with him on this in a bipartisan way. There is a quote that appeared in Politico from a Republican aide who said: ``I think Kevin was hoping that the Democrats would never agree to our requests. That way the commission would be partisan and we can all vote no and say it's a sham operation.
``Because he knows Trump is going to `lose his mind over this commission'.''
And then all the sudden, he comes out against it, and 175 of my Republican colleagues voted against a bipartisan commission. They sent a signal to the Senate to kill it.
So the idea that somehow they are washing their hands of any responsibility, they were complicit in killing the bipartisan commission.
And now they are here to try to kill a select committee modeled after a committee that they established when they were in charge.
So enough of the lame excuses. We get it. You don't want to get to the truth.
I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Jeffries), the distinguished chairman of the Democratic Caucus.
Mr. JEFFRIES. Madam Speaker, the hypocrisy coming from some in this Chamber is extraordinary. The radical right consistently claims to be the party of law and order, but they refuse to sign off on an investigation into the January 6 violent attack on the Capitol, which embodied lawlessness and disorder.
They have chosen party over patriotism. They have chosen autocracy over democracy. They have chosen the big lie over the rule of law. They have chosen conspiracy theories over the Constitution. And, yes, they have chosen the most corrupt President in American history over the peaceful transfer of power.
But truth crushed to the ground will rise again, and we will uncover the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth whether you like it or not.
Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Van Duyne).
Ms. VAN DUYNE. Madam Speaker, I ran for Congress, like many of my colleagues, to make change, to represent my district well, and to work hard with my colleagues in a bipartisan way to deliver the solutions that the American people expect from us.
Unfortunately, we are again here today using the taxpayers' time to play a part in more political theater.
January 6 was a terrible day for this institution, for the Capitol Police, the Members and the staff serving here, and the country. That is why the Senate Rules Committee conducted a thorough investigation into the events that day and publicly released their findings. That is why there are still investigations going on at Federal agencies. That is why the House Committee on Appropriations, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Judiciary, and Oversight and Reform are still conducting investigations.
The redundancy of another committee is not only unnecessary, but it is a distraction. It is a distraction meant to mask humanitarian failures at the border, massive spikes in crime in cities across the country, and absolute inept leadership in confronting our foreign adversaries.
The Speaker's obsession with dominating this investigation is concerning. Her puppet committee has no prohibition on interfering with ongoing law enforcement investigations, potentially distracting from putting those responsible behind bars, because it is clear that this is not the priority here. The only priority here is a self-serving agenda to put D.C. politicians first and give them their cable news talking points.
If we are going to spend time and resources on investigations, we should be doing many things in this House that have been ignored by the Democrats, like investigating the origins of COVID to hold China accountable, cleaning up a humanitarian crisis at the border created by Democrat policies. But there is no outrage on the left for half a million people who died of COVID, for the countless children who have been harmed at our border.
I will be voting ``no'' on this select committee.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I am sorry that the previous speaker doesn't see the importance of trying to get to the bottom of an attack on our democracy.
And by the way, for the Record, the gentlewoman voted against the bipartisan commission.
I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney), the distinguished chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform.
Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership.
I rise today in strong support of Speaker Pelosi's resolution to establish a select committee to investigate the January 6 attack on our Capitol. I thank the Speaker for her unwavering commitment to uncovering the truth about what happened that day.
This select committee will be critical to fully understanding the root causes of the attack on our Capitol and to passing reforms to ensure that an insurrection never again reaches these Halls or threatens our democracy.
Over the past 5 months, the Oversight and Reform Committee has made substantial progress in investigating the attack on our Capitol.
The committee has asked why our Nation's law enforcement agencies failed to anticipate a domestic terrorist attack that was planned right out in the open on social media, television, and why critical assistance took so long to arrive during the attack.
In the course of our investigation, the Oversight and Reform Committee has found that officials made 12 urgent requests for security assistance at the Capitol, yet the National Guard did not arrive until more than 4 hours after the Capitol perimeter was breached and lives were threatened.
We have found that warnings of the impending assault were passed directly to the FBI in the weeks before the attack, including that insurrectionists planned in writing to take the Capitol building. We plan to take the Capitol building. Yet, in the face of these warnings, we have found that our Nation's intelligence agencies failed to act.
Our work is far from done, and we must continue to seek the truth about the January 6 domestic terrorist attack. I look forward to supporting this select committee and its investigation and working together to secure our democracy.
Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The gentleman from Massachusetts continues talking about how this select committee has been modeled after the Select Committee on Benghazi, but ``modeled'' is a very loose term, given that this committee obviously has a far more skewed ratio than the Benghazi committee did.
In addition to that, this committee can all be appointed by the Speaker. In her own words, she agreed that, yes, she could appoint them all. In the Select Committee on Benghazi, there were recommendations taken from the minority to the majority in order to appoint that membership.
So to say that this has been modeled after Benghazi, maybe because they have the name ``select committee,'' and that is the model they use, but certainly the membership and the makeup of this is not the bipartisan issue that it was on the Select Committee on Benghazi.
Madam Speaker, I have been listening to some of my colleagues on the other side, and you would think that nothing is being done to investigate the January 6 attack, and that is wrong.
In addition to the bipartisan Senate investigation that has already been mentioned, numerous other investigations are under way by both law enforcement and congressional bodies.
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And as I have mentioned, we have already allocated $10 million for the Architect of the Capitol to investigate what went wrong that day, and law enforcement continues to conduct its investigation.
The majority ignores the fact that more than 500 individuals--which has been mentioned several times--have been arrested or charged in connection with the January 6 attack, and that investigation will likely continue for some time.
Instead of ignoring legitimate investigations and launching one of partisan politics, we ought to let the processes that are already underway continue. If we don't, we risk undermining the work that is already being done.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, the language on consultation is the exact same language that was in the Select Committee on Benghazi.
Let's just be honest. My friends on the other side are not interested in getting to the truth.
Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Swalwell).
Mr. SWALWELL. ``Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.''
Madam Speaker, we are blessed today that joining us are some of the heroes from the Metropolitan Police Department and Capitol Police, who defended this Capitol on January 6. And the questions that they are asking are the questions that our constituents are asking about January 6.
Will we investigate how our democracy was attacked, or will we send a green light to allow it to be attacked again?
Will we stand with the cops, or roll with the cop killers?
Do we want the truth, or will we allow history to be erased?
Are we for the Constitution, or are we for chaos?
Madam Speaker, January 6 was a crime against our democracy and the heroes of this Capitol. Now we must investigate it. Failing that, we are lawless and lost.
Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Dean).
Ms. DEAN. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding.
Madam Speaker, what are they afraid of? The truth?
On January 6, I came to this Chamber to try to understand why some of my colleagues were engaged in a lie that the 2020 election was stolen from their candidate. I never expected to finish that day forever shaken and changed by what happened in this Chamber.
Madam Speaker, I was up in the Gallery, right up here. I remember the terrifying banging on those doors as we were exited and wearing gas masks--my fear for my colleagues, the staff, the press, the custodial staff, the Capitol Police, and the anxiety that my family suffered with their mom inside as they watched an insurrection on television, wondering if we would make it out alive.
To be clear, this was a domestic terrorist attack on everyone who works in this Capitol complex. It was an attack on democracy. It was an attack on the peaceful transfer of power. It was an attack on our Nation.
We need a select subcommittee to understand what happened on January 6, where many of our lives were at risk. We need to know the facts and circumstances. We need to know the truth so that it never happens again.
Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I wanted to comment a little on the comments regarding the makeup of the select committee.
Madam Speaker, it is my understanding that when Speaker Pelosi was asked if she could veto Republican picks for the select committee, Speaker Pelosi responded: Yes, we will see who they nominate.
That opens the door for the committee's work to be corrupted even before it begins, and she continues to have full control over the members of that committee.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, let me again say it is the exact same language that was in their Benghazi Select Committee. And I am more than happy to send over a paper copy so they can see it.
Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Malinowski).
Mr. MALINOWSKI. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of what is now our only remaining opportunity to understand the attack on the Capitol.
January 6 was a day when democracy in America almost gave way to anarchy. It was also the worst day for law enforcement in America since 9/11.
Yes, the courts can tell us who brutally attacked our brave police officers that day; who tried to stop, by violence, the peaceful transfer of power from one President to another.
But they can't tell us why this happened; how and why did so many ordinary Americans come to believe that storming our Capitol was a perfectly normal thing to do; how did this movement become radicalized, and what drives it to this day.
Because the lies are still being told, and I am not going to move on from confronting a lie as others refuse to move on from promoting that lie.
If somebody voted against a bipartisan commission and opposes this select committee, it can only be because they don't want to know the answers to the questions that still remain.
Madam Speaker, I am going to vote ``yes'' because I want to know those answers so that this will never happen again.
Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell).
Mr. PASCRELL. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the truth and justice.
Twenty years ago, we suffered the worst external terrorist attack in our modern history. But the gravest attack ever on American democracy came 175 days ago. That attack was borne of big lies; big lies about the election, about voting, and about our democracy. The lies divided our country. They spread like a plague.
On December 11, I warned of elected officials amplifying big lies. The 14th Amendment is clear about traitors and seditionists on the day the electors tried to do their job. Think about it. We must now hold everyone responsible. We must know how the spark of insurrection was ignited and document who fanned the flames.
Madam Speaker, we have a duty to history. Our review will guide future generations.
Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from the U.S. Virgin Islands (Ms. Plaskett).
Ms. PLASKETT. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill.
On January 6, we witnessed one of the darkest days in our history, a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol during the formal counting of the votes on the election of a President. They attempted to destroy our House, the people's House.
As the elected stewards of this House, it is our responsibility to investigate the breakdowns and breaches in security that failed us, that led us to January 6.
It is our collective responsibility to use the authority given to us for a select panel devoted solely to the proper and thorough investigation of the facts and causes of the attack; not just the attackers, but the conspirators and the enablers.
If you can't protect the people's House, God help your family's house if the former President wishes to loot that as well.
Madam Speaker, consideration and passage of this resolution today is timely, as Americans across the Nation prepare to celebrate Fourth of July, the signing of our Declaration of Independence. Our country was founded on a democratic process of fair elections. I cannot think of a more genuine celebration of our independence than the commitment to protect our democracy.
Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano), the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
Mr. TAKANO. Madam Speaker, I thank Chairman McGovern for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of House Resolution 503, to establish a select committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol.
On January 6, 2021, Americans watched as the U.S. Capitol was overrun by a violent mob of Trump supporters on a mission to stop the certification of the electoral college votes. Lawmakers were in this very Chamber carrying out their constitutional duty when this mob, incited by then-President Trump, forced them into lockdown. Many feared for their lives. Our democratic process came to a halt, and, unfortunately, a Capitol Police officer lost his life.
Madam Speaker, this was an attack on our democracy. We must shine a light on the truth to prevent something like this from ever happening again and to hold those responsible for inciting this insurrection accountable for the damage they have caused.
For the sake of our democracy, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' to establish the select committee.
Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, our country is facing enormous challenges, but instead of addressing those challenges, we are focused on duplicating work that has already been done. And I have to repeat that. These investigations have been done and are ongoing. And it appears as though this select committee is being done purely for political purposes.
In early June, two Senate committees issued a joint report focusing on ``security, planning, and response failures related to the violence and unprecedented attack on January 6.''
That report was signed by Democrats and Republicans, and it included a comprehensive audit of the security, intelligence, and authority failures of that day. It also included substantive recommendations for moving forward, including tangible action items that can be addressed by this Congress.
But instead of working in tandem with our Senate counterparts, Democrats want to politicize this issue even further. At a time when the American people have little trust in the government, we need to be working to restore that trust. Unfortunately, this kind of partisan move will not advance that shared goal.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds.
Madam Speaker, I was one of the last people off this House floor. When I walked into the Speaker's lobby, I saw this mob smashing the window, trying to get at us. And we were protected because of the Capitol Police and the D.C. police who were here. They protected my life. They protected your life.
And to them: I apologize that you have to hear this kind of debate, a partisan attempt to try to undermine a committee that is aimed at getting at the truth of what happened. You deserve better.
The people who work up here deserve better. Our democracy deserves better.
Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Demings).
Mrs. DEMINGS. Madam Speaker, my colleagues way on the other side of the aisle asked a question: How can we better protect our Capitol Police?
Well, as a former police chief, let me tell you how.
First, do not replace truth with lies.
Second, uphold the law yourselves.
Third, hold those who beat the police down accountable.
How can you do that without knowing the complete truth, without a thorough investigation?
My colleagues way on the other side of the aisle brought up the 9/11 Commission being about foreign actors.
Well, let me remind you that the oath that we took says that we will protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Madam Speaker, did they forget? Did they ever really know? Or were they simply too afraid to care?
Well, I care, and so do my brothers and sisters in blue. We will not forget, and we will not let you forget either.
Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
General Leave
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members be given 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on H. Res. 503.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Massachusetts?
There was no objection.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank my friend who is managing on the other side.
Madam Speaker, I wanted to come just for a brief minute to clarify what I heard on this floor. There is not a self-serving mindset today. There is a serving of the American people, because the American people have cried out for the reasons why domestic terrorists attacked this place.
So I say that the Speaker worked bipartisan with Mr. Katko and Mr. Thompson and gave us an independent commission, but that was not accepted. So, today, we come because it is not our voices that are demanding it, it is the American people.
Madam Speaker, I just want to say that I was here for September 11, and it was the Democrats who had to push for the 9/11 Commission. But even on that day, there were no Republicans or Democrats. There were no Northerners or Southerners or West Coast or East Coast. We were not red State or blue State. We were all simply Americans. And that is where we find ourselves today.
Madam Speaker, I experienced at that time a gamut of emotions, as I did on January 6. Because of the Constitution, it is necessary that we move on this bill today.
Madam Speaker, as Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Homeland Security, and Terrorism, and a senior member of the Homeland Security, and Budget Committees, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 503, which establishes a Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the Capitol Complex Act and charged with investigating and reporting upon the facts and causes of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol as well as the influencing factors that may have provoked the attack on our democracy.
Specifically, the Select Committee's mandate includes:
1. examining and evaluating evidence developed by relevant Federal, State, and local governments, in a manner that is respectful of ongoing investigations, regarding the facts and circumstances of the attack;
2. building upon other investigations regarding the attack and targeted violence and domestic terrorism related to such attack; and
3. reporting its findings, conclusions, and recommendations for corrective measures taken to prevent future acts of targeted violence and domestic terrorism and improves the security posture of the United States Capitol Complex in a manner that preserves the accessibility of the Capitol Complex for all Americans, and strengthen the security and resilience of nation and American democratic institutions against domestic terrorism.
H. Res. 503 establishes a 13-person committee appointed by the Speaker, with five members appointed after consultation with the House Republican Leader.
The Select Committee is authorized to issue subpoenas to secure information to carry out its investigation and is be required to issue a final report with findings regarding the facts and causes of the attack, along with recommendations to prevent future attacks on our democratic institutions .
Like September 11, 2001, we cannot and must not ever forget the existential threat faced by our democracy on January 6, 2021, when thousands of domestic terrorists inspired by the 45th President stormed the U.S. Capitol in a violent, crazed, and desperate effort to disrupt the Joint Meeting of Congress prescribed by the Constitution to tally the votes of presidential electors and announce the results to the nation and the world.
Madam Speaker, the morning of September 11, 2001 is, and will always be, a day like no other.
It is a day all living Americans will remember because not since Pearl Harbor had there been such a dastardly and deadly attack on American soil.
My heart still grieves for those who perished on flights United Airlines 93, American Airlines 77, American Airlines 11, and United Airlines 175.
When the sun rose on the morning of September 11, none of us knew that it would end in an inferno in the magnificent World Trade Center Towers in New York City and the Pentagon and in the grassy fields of Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Madam Speaker, as hard as it is to believe, out of a tragedy so overwhelming and horrific, something good and great emerged in the aftermath of September 11.
On that day there were no Republicans or Democrats; there were no Northerners or Southerners or West or East Coasters.
We were not Red State or Blue State; we were all simply Americans.
On that day, we were united in our shock and anger and sadness and in our resolve to defend our country and protect the freedoms that has made America the greatest country in the history of the world.
I experienced the same gamut of emotions on January 6: grief, hope, resolve, and fierce commitment to protect our country.
Madam Speaker, the assault on the U.S. Capitol by domestic terrorists and insurrectionists rightly takes its place as one of the darkest moments in our nation's history since the Civil War.
Madam Speaker, the January 6 insurrection caused tragic loss of life and many injuries, while leaving behind widespread physical damage to the Capitol Complex and emotional trauma for Members, Congressional employees, and the Capitol Police.
It bears repeating often that the Congress and the nation owe undying gratitude to the men and women who answered the call of constitutional duty and heroically won the day on that bloody and deadly afternoon.
That is why I introduced H. Res. 169, a resolution commending the officers of the United States Capitol Police Department, the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC, and other law enforcement personnel for their selfless and heroic service in defense of American democracy in responding to the assault on the United States Capitol by domestic terrorists on January 6, 2021.
H. Res. 169 notes that the January 6, 2021 siege of the Capitol assault resulted in one of the worst days of injuries for law enforcement in the United States since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks but that the officers of the United States Capitol Police Department, the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC, and other uniformed law enforcement officers stood their ground in defense of American democracy while being attacked metal pipes, discharged chemical irritants, and other weapons.
The resolution conveys the thanks and appreciation of a grateful nation to them for their selfless and heroic service, encourages all educational and media institutions throughout the United States to teach and celebrate the story of their heroism and patriotism; and calls upon all Americans to read, celebrate, and revere the Constitution of the United States, fidelity to which is the surest best means of forming a more perfect union, establishing justice, ensuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare, and securing the blessing of liberty to them and their posterity.
Madam Speaker, the domestic terrorists and seditionists who attacked the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 were not, as some of their ardent defenders and apologists across the aisle have stated falsely, on a ``normal tour visit''; nor was their effort to lay siege to the Capitol and disrupt the processes of government an act of persons who love their country.
And it is absurd to suggest that it was a celebration of the United States and what it stands for when the leading edge of terrorists desecrated the Capitol by offensively parading the treasonous Confederate flag through the building and when, because of their insurrection, several members of law enforcement made the supreme sacrifice and scores more were seriously injured.
Madam Speaker, I would like to take a few moments to explain why the intended purpose of the January 6 insurrection--to disrupt the Joint Meeting of Congress to tally the votes of presidential electors and announce the results to the nation and the world--was the greatest threat to the American Experiment since the Civil War when the proslavery forces would rather make war than let the nation survive and the pro-freedom forces would accept war rather than let the nation perish.
Madam Speaker, the Framers had first-hand experience with the types of abuses and usurpations committed by political leaders who ruled them but were not accountable to them and detailed many of those wrongs in the Declaration of Independence.
The Framers understood and declared to the world that democratic governors derived their powers from the knowing and voluntary consent of the governed as expressed in free, fair, and unfettered elections unmarred by the influence or sabotage of any foreign country or entity not a member of the political community.
The Framers understood that if elections are influenced by foreign actors or authoritarian forces within, then voters are reduced from the great role of citizens to mere subjects, and government for and by the people is a sham.
The most important feature of a democracy is that it is the voters who alone can confer the legitimate consent and authorization necessary to govern upon the governors who are then duty-bound to represent the voters' interests, and only their interests.
Madam Speaker, the fundamental democratic compact between the governed and the governors is that the latter's authority and continuance in office comes exclusively from the governed and allegiance is owed exclusively to the governed.
This agreement can only be reached through free and fair elections, a breach of which threatens the vitality and viability of the social contract upon which democratic self-rule of, by, and for the people depends.
Madam Speaker, President Lincoln called the United States the ``last best hope of man on earth'' and stated at Gettysburg the importance of finishing the work we are in to ensure that ``government of the people, for the people, by the people does not perish from the earth.''
By our actions in voting to establish and empower a Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the Capitol Complex, we are taking an indispensable step in ensuring the preservation of our democracy, which has been the envy of the world for than 240 years.
I urge all Members to join me in voting for H. Res. 503, establishing a Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the Capitol Complex Act.
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Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Speier).
Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
My heart is racing right now, and I am trembling, in part because I am recalling what happened to me on January 6, when I was in that gallery and had to climb around the other side and then lie there on the floor. Then, I heard a shot ring out, and it took me back over 40 years ago, lying on an airstrip in Guyana about to lose my life. I thought, at that moment: My God, I survived Guyana, but I am not going to survive this, in the house of democracy in the country in which I was born.
For the Members on the other side of the aisle to call this political, let me remind you, it was political because the President of the United States at the time thought it was fun and an act of great patriotism to come up here and try to overturn the election.
So, you may call it political; it was political. But we are going to find out why it happened, and we are going to make sure it never happens again.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their remarks to the Chair.
Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I include in the Record the bipartisan Senate Homeland Security report.
Examining the U.S. Capitol Attack: A Review of the Security, Planning, and Response Failures on January 6
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs U.S. Senator Gary Peters, Chair, U.S. Senator Rob Portman, Ranking Member. Committee on Rules and Administration U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, Chair, U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, Ranking Member.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
On January 6, 2021, the world witnessed a violent and unprecedented attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Vice President, Members of Congress, and the democratic process. Rioters, attempting to disrupt the Joint Session of Congress, broke into the Capitol building, vandalized and stole property, and ransacked offices. They attacked members of law enforcement and threatened the safety and lives of our nation's elected leaders. Tragically, seven individuals, including three law enforcement officers, ultimately lost their lives.
Rioters were intent on disrupting the Joint Session, during which Members of Congress were scheduled to perform their constitutional obligation to count the electoral votes for President and Vice President of the United States and announce the official results of the 2020 election. Due to the heroism of United States Capitol Police (``USCP'') officers, along with their federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, the rioters failed to prevent Congress from fulfilling its constitutional duty. In the early hours of January 7, the President of the Senate, Vice President Pence, announced Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris as the President-elect and Vice President-elect of the United States.
This report addresses the security, planning, and response failures of the entities directly responsible for Capitol security--USCP and the Capitol Police Board, which is comprised of the House and Senate Sergeants at Arms and the Architect of the Capitol as voting members, and the USCP Chief as a non-voting member--along with critical breakdowns involving several federal agencies, particularly the Federal Bureau of Investigation (``FBI''), Department of Homeland Security (``DHS''), and Department of Defense (``DOD''). The Committees also made a series of recommendations for the Capitol Police Board, USCP, federal intelligence agencies, DOD, and other Capital region law enforcement agencies to address the intelligence and security failures.
The Committees' investigation uncovered a number of intelligence and security failures leading up to and on January 6 that allowed for the breach of the Capitol. These breakdowns ranged from federal intelligence agencies failing to warn of a potential for violence to a lack of planning and preparation by USCP and law enforcement leadership.
The federal Intelligence Community--led by FBI and DHS--did not issue a threat assessment warning of potential violence targeting the Capitol on January 6. Law enforcement entities, including USCP, largely rely on FBI and DHS to assess and communicate homeland security threats. Throughout 2020, the FBI and DHS disseminated written documents detailing the potential for increased violent extremist activity at lawful protests and targeting of law enforcement and government facilities and personnel. Despite online calls for violence at the Capitol, neither the FBI nor DHS issued a threat assessment or intelligence bulletin warning law enforcement entities in the National Capital Region of the potential for violence. FBI and DHS officials stressed the difficulty in discerning constitutionally protected free speech versus actionable, credible threats of violence. In testimony before the Committees, officials from both FBI and DHS acknowledged that the Intelligence Community needs to improve its handling and dissemination of threat information from social media and online message boards.
USCP's intelligence components failed to convey the full scope of threat information they possessed. Although USCP mainly relies on the FBI and DHS for intelligence and threat information, USCP has three components responsible for intelligence-related activities. These components, and the materials they produce, are supposed to inform USCP's security and operational planning. This, however, was not the case for January 6.
USCP's lead intelligence component--the Intelligence and Interagency Coordination Division (``IICD'')--was aware of the potential for violence in the days and weeks ahead of January 6. It received information from a variety of sources about threats of violence focused on the Joint Session and the Capitol Complex and the large crowds expected to gather in Washington, D.C. on January 6. Yet, IICD failed to fully incorporate this information into all of its internal assessments about January 6 and the Joint Session. As a result, critical information regarding threats of violence was not shared with USCP's own officers and other law enforcement partners.
USCP's preparations for the Joint Session also suffered because of the decentralized nature of its intelligence components. On January 5, an employee in a separate USCP intelligence-related component received information from the FBI's Norfolk Field Office regarding online discussions of violence directed at Congress, including that protestors were coming to Congress ``prepared for war.'' This report, similar to other information received by IICD, was never distributed to IICD or USCP leadership before January 6.
USCP was not adequately prepared to prevent or respond to the January 6 security threats, which contributed to the breach of the Capitol. Steven Sund, the USCP Chief on January 6, and Yogananda Pittman, who was designated as Acting Chief after Steven Sund announced his resignation on January 7, both attributed the breach of the Capitol to intelligence failures across the federal government. USCP leadership, however, also failed to prepare a department-wide operational plan for the Joint Session. Similarly, USCP leadership did not develop a comprehensive staffing plan for the Joint Session detailing, among other things, where officers would be located. USCP could not provide the Committees any documents showing where officers were located at the start of the attack and how that changed throughout the attack.
USCP leadership also failed to provide front-line officers with effective protective equipment or training. Although USCP activated seven specialty Civil Disturbance Unit
(``CDU'') platoons in advance of the Joint Session, only four of those platoons were outfitted with special protective equipment, including helmets, hardened plastic armor, and shields. The many other USCP officers who fought to defend the Capitol were left to do so in their daily uniforms. Many of those front-line officers had not received training in basic civil disturbance tactics since their initial Recruit Officer Class training. While some CDU officers were issued special protective equipment, the platoons were not authorized to wear the equipment at the beginning of their shifts. Instead, USCP staged equipment on buses near the Capitol. In at least one instance, when the platoon attempted to retrieve the equipment, the bus was locked, leaving the platoon without access to this critical equipment. USCP also failed to provide equipment training to support the CDU platoons and did not authorize CDU platoons to use all available less-than-lethal munitions, which could have enhanced officers' ability to push back rioters.
These operational failures were exacerbated by leadership's failure to clearly communicate during the attack. USCP leadership gathered in a command center, blocks away from the Capitol building. Two incident commanders identified as responsible for relaying information to front-line officers were forced to engage with rioters during the attack, making it difficult for them to relay information. As a result, communications were chaotic, sporadic, and, according to many front-line officers, non-existent.
Opaque processes and a lack of emergency authority delayed requests for National Guard assistance. The USCP Chief has no unilateral authority to request assistance from the National Guard; the USCP Chief must submit a request for assistance to the Capitol Police Board for approval. Steven Sund never submitted a formal request to the Capitol Police Board for National Guard support in advance of January 6. Instead, Steven Sund had informal conversations with the House Sergeant at Arms, Paul Irving, and the Senate Sergeant at Arms, Michael Stenger, regarding the potential need for National Guard support. No one ever discussed the possibility of National Guard support with the Architect of the Capitol, the third voting member of the Capitol Police Board.
The members of the Capitol Police Board who were in charge on January 6 did not appear to be fully familiar with the statutory and regulatory requirements for requesting National Guard support, which contributed to the delay in deploying the National Guard to the Capitol. In their testimony before the Committees, Paul Irving and Steven Sund offered different accounts of when Steven Sund first requested National Guard assistance during the attack. Phone records reveal a number of conversations between Steven Sund and Paul Irving on January 6. However, because there is no transcription of the conversations, there is no way for the Committees to determine when the request was made. National Guard assistance was delayed while Steven Sund attempted to contact the Capitol Police Board members and obtain the required approvals. Regardless of what time the request was made, the need to await Capitol Police Board approval during an emergency hindered the ability to request District of Columbia National Guard (``DCNG'') assistance quickly.
The intelligence failures, coupled with the Capitol Police Board's failure to request National Guard assistance prior to January 6, meant DCNG was not activated, staged, and prepared to quickly respond to an attack on the Capitol. As the attack unfolded, DOD required time to approve the request and gather, equip, and instruct its personnel on the mission, which resulted in additional delays. Prior to January 6, USCP informed DOD officials on two separate occasions that it was not seeking DCNG assistance for the Joint Session of Congress. The D.C. government, by contrast, did request unarmed troops for traffic support, and on January 6, 154 unarmed DCNG personnel were staged at traffic control points throughout the city. As the attack unfolded, USCP and the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia
(``MPD'') both pleaded with DOD officials for immediate assistance. DOD officials claimed they received a
``workable'' request for assistance from USCP at approximately 2:30 p.m. The request was presented to the Acting Secretary of Defense and approved at approximately 3:00 p.m. For the next ninety minutes, DOD officials ordered DCNG personnel to return to the Armory, obtain necessary gear, and prepare for deployment as leaders quickly prepared a mission plan. Miscommunication and confusion during response preparations, demonstrated by conflicting records about who authorized deployment and at what time, contributed to the delayed deployment. DCNG began arriving at the Capitol Complex at 5:20 p.m.--nearly three hours after DOD received USCP's request for assistance and more than four hours after the barriers at the Capitol were first breached. The Committees' Recommendations
Based on the findings of the investigation, the Committees identified a number of recommendations to address the intelligence and security failures leading up to and on January 6. Recommendations specific to the Capitol Complex include empowering the USCP Chief to request assistance from the DCNG in emergency situations and passing legislation to clarify the statutes governing requests for assistance from executive agencies and departments in nonemergency situations. To address the preparedness of the USCP, the Committees recommend improvements to training, equipment, intelligence collection, and operational planning.
The Committees further recommend intelligence agencies review and evaluate criteria for issuing and communicating intelligence assessments and the establishment of standing
``concept of operation'' scenarios and contingency plans to improve DOD and DCNG response to civil disturbance and terrorism incidents. These scenarios and plans should detail what level of DOD or DCNG assistance may be required, what equipment would be needed for responding personnel, and the plan for command-and-control during the response. The Committees' Investigation
Two days after the January 6 attack, the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee announced a joint bipartisan oversight investigation to examine the intelligence and security failures that led to the attack. On February 23, 2021, the Committees held the first public oversight hearing on the attack. The hearing, entitled Examining the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, featured testimony from the USCP Chief, House Sergeant at Arms, and Senate Sergeant at Arms in charge on January 6. The Committees also heard testimony from the Acting Chief of MPD. One week later, on March 3, 2021, the Committees held a second oversight hearing, which included witnesses from DOD, DCNG, FBI, and DHS.
As part of their investigation, the Committees reviewed thousands of documents. The Committees also received written statements from more than 50 USCP officers about their experiences. In addition, the Committees interviewed numerous current and former officials from USCP, Senate Sergeant at Arms, House Sergeant at Arms, Architect of the Capitol, FBI, DHS, MPD, DOD, and DCNG. Most entities cooperated with the Committees' requests. There were notable exceptions, however: the Department of Justice and DHS have yet to fully comply with the Committees' requests for information, the Office of the House of Representatives Sergeant at Arms did not comply with the Committees' information requests, and a USCP Deputy Chief of Police declined to be interviewed by the Committees. The Committees will continue to pursue responses from those who have failed to fully comply. The oversight of events related to January 6, including intelligence and security failures, will continue.
Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I know we do live in a highly polarized time, but despite the partisanship that so often plagues the House of Representatives, there is no reason this select committee should not be wholly bipartisan. In fact, that is what the American people demand.
Unfortunately, the resolution ensures that bipartisanship will not happen. The result will be a divided report focused more on a narrative than a solution, and that is why I asked that we submit that Senate report as part of the Record.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I have great respect for the gentlewoman. We serve on the Rules Committee together, and she has a tough job here today. But, I mean, come on. Give me a break.
I mean, we had a bipartisan commission, equally divided, equal subpoena power, and they voted against it. The minority leader of this House whipped against it and fought against it and convinced the Senate to try to kill it.
I have noticed that there is a lack of Republicans who have the backbone to come down here and explain to the American people why they won't support the bipartisan commission or this select commission, because they don't want to be on record as defending a position aimed at not getting to the truth.
This is a moment that, quite frankly, people are going to remember. I best point that out because it is stunning to me.
Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the majority leader.
Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, the American public watching this debate must think that some of the verbiage was written by Lewis Carroll. Lewis Carroll, of course, wrote ``Alice in Wonderland,'' where up was down, black was white, left was right, and right was left.
There is an advantage, I would tell you, of not having served here for some time because you don't know what happened in the past. The gentlewoman who represents the Rules Committee said, gee, there have been other investigations.
I remember how outraged I was when the Republicans had the eighth investigation of Benghazi, outraged not only because, as it has been opined by the gentlewoman, that, oh, we looked at this, but because for the first seven times, they found nothing there, ``they'' being the Republicans. And so, they logically concluded, we need to have another study until we get the answer we want.
Lo and behold, the investigator, Mr. Gowdy, felt to be a person of extraordinary intellect, which he was, had a study, a partisan study, and found exactly the same outcome.
The studies to date have found that there were many things done wrong, but they were limited in their scope, which is, of course, the one thing that the Republicans wanted to do with the bipartisan commission they asked for, that the Speaker gave them: five Democrats, five Republicans; equal power over subpoenas. And the staffing, clearly, had been worked out on the Senate side.
In the final analysis, the issue was really: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
Madam Speaker, like many of our colleagues and many Americans, I had hoped that Congress would establish a bipartisan commission to investigate the terrible, tragic, almost unthinkable events of January 6, when we saw Americans assault this Capitol, these Representatives on this floor and the floor down the hall, calling for the death of the Vice President of the United States and the Speaker of the House, one of the most tragic events in the history of our country.
The House brought a bill to this floor. The Speaker brought to this floor what the minority leader asked for, except for one thing, scope, the fear that we would look at the very essence of what January 6 was about.
Yes, some accuse us of concluding that, because the President recruited people to come to Washington, incited them in a fiery speech, and then deployed them to the Capitol of the United States, Heaven forbid that we would look at him as being a cause of that event. That is only three things that he did.
The House voted on May 19 to do exactly that. And then what happened? Well, the Republicans all voted against it. Not everyone, strike that. There were a few courageous souls that did vote for it because they wanted to see the truth and get the truth. In fact, some of them articulated the truth, and to that extent, their party kicked them out of the leadership.
That is what they said: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. The Bible says the truth shall set you free, and the people need to know the truth because that is what will keep them free.
We voted, with hopes that the Senate would concur in the House's judgment, that a bipartisan commission consistent with what Leader McCarthy asked for, except for scope--we wanted the commission to be able to look at the event that was the cause of the commission's creation. Afterward, however, the former President tweeted:
``Republicans in the House and Senate should not approve the Democratic trap of the January 6 commission.''
What was the truth? That was the trap. That was the trap that the President feared. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
The Senate was forced to choose between a bipartisan process that many Republicans had earlier supported--you remember, of course, that the ranking member of the committee that reported out the commission bill supported it and urged his colleagues to do so as well. It was not a partisan effort; it was a bipartisan effort. But, of course, Mr. Trump hadn't spoken at that point in time.
They were forced to choose between the President and the truth. Sadly, they chose former President Trump, not truth.
However, the American people are still demanding answers and accountability, and they deserve both. They want to know that steps are being taken to understand what happened and take measures to ensure that it never happens again. It had never happened before, and we don't want it to happen again.
Just like after the 9/11 attacks, we need to come together, as we did after 9/11, to ensure that a full investigation is conducted on an independent and bipartisan basis.
Now, yes, this select committee is not even, as other investigative committees have not been even. We would prefer even, which is why we brought it to the floor. Mr. Katko preferred even, which is why we brought it to the floor. Mr. McCarthy had asked for even, which is why we brought even to the floor. Sadly, House and Senate Republicans made it impossible to establish a commission on a bipartisan basis because you have reached your conclusion. And your conclusion is: Let's move on. Let bygones be bygones. Let the past be forgotten.
Who said that? John Thune. He said: We don't want to--the gentlewoman has said it. All they want to do is drag this on because we don't want it to adversely affect our election. That is what was said. Senator Thune essentially said that.
Notwithstanding that, the House is going to do its job, and we are going to create this select committee to achieve the goal of truth. We will do it on behalf of the people we represent, who watched in horror as their Capitol was assaulted by a violent mob bent on overturning a United States election. That is insurrection.
The people who thought it was a tourist visit I don't think were on the floor. You heard the gentlewoman from California talk about her experience. It was not a tourist experience.
I hope my Republican friends will participate in this committee's work in good faith with their Democratic colleagues to carry out its mission. If they see things being done that are not the truth, then they ought to tell the truth. They ought to bring up the facts as they see them.
That is what our adversary system is. We have an adversary system here in this House. We have an adversary system in our legal system. Engage, be involved, raise the flag as you see it.
{time} 1445
I hope we can come together to create the bipartisan commission so many have sought and still seek. The launching of this new select committee will not preclude the alternative objective.
So I urge my colleagues to join me in passing this resolution today, and I hope we can begin to uncover exactly what happened and take responsible steps to prevent the events of January 6 from reoccurring, and, yes, find out who is responsible.
Who is responsible for inciting a mob to come to the Capitol of the United States to overturn the election of the President of the United States?
That was their stated intent.
Madam Speaker, I urge a strong vote for this select committee Americans deserve and want and let us pray they get the truth.
Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Wenstrup).
Mr. WENSTRUP. Madam Speaker, I have heard it mentioned here today Democrats telling us why we voted against the bill. They didn't ask us.
I can tell you why I voted against the bill before. And I think it is known by the other side, because I offered an amendment to this bill for a commission, that if you are very serious and curious about the defense posture of this building and the posture of those who work in it, then would you please include in this commission to investigate and look at the events of June 14, 2017, at the baseball field?
Do you know what, Madam Speaker?
There weren't any Democrats there that day except for one, the one that tried to kill us.
Madam Speaker, you talked about an insurrection. If not for the Capitol Police being there that day, 20 to 30 Members of Congress from the House of Representatives on the Republican side may have been assassinated that day changing the balance of power in this Congress.
That is an insurrection.
Why is it the Democrats voted that down to include that as part of the commission?
No one could explain that. It has all got to be about one event.
I do not condone for one second what happened here on January 6--not for one second--but if you are serious, Madam Speaker, about looking at what we need and what goes on and what inspires people to attack this building and the people who work here, then let's take a look at everything.
Why aren't we including the event on Good Friday when the gentleman drove up and killed a Capitol Policeman?
He could have had a car full of explosives and pulled a Timothy McVeigh-type of event.
Why are we not looking at that as well?
This is incomplete, and it is insufficient.
After the events on June 14, 2017, Speaker Paul Ryan stood in this Chamber and got applause from both sides of the aisle when he said:
``An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.''
We didn't hear that this time, did we?
No, we did not.
This has been created as a partisan issue at a time when it should not be partisan. If you are not partisan, Madam Speaker, then you include all the things that threaten us, that threaten this body, that threaten this building, and that threaten the people who work in it.
Let's be serious. If you are serious, be inclusive, be complete, and do the right thing.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their remarks to the Chair.
Mr. McGOVERN. May I inquire of the gentlewoman how many speakers remain on her side.
Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, that is it.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I have one additional speaker.
Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I want to just correct the Record on what the previous speaker has just said. The bill that he referred to was not written by Democrats. The bill that he referred to, the bipartisan commission, was written by Democrats and Republicans. It was written in consultation by the minority leader's designee, Mr. Katko. It was presented to the Rules Committee in a bipartisan way. This was a bipartisan product.
I share the gentleman's outrage over the attack against the shooting of Republican Members, including the distinguished minority whip, during that baseball practice. But I would just say to the gentleman, respectfully, my friends on the other side of the aisle were in charge of this institution then. They could have called for an independent committee to look into that, and I think all of us would have supported that.
Let me just say, Madam Speaker, that I assume many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are getting their talking points from the minority leader.
I have to tell you, Madam Speaker, I get why the mother of Officer Sicknick who lost his life defending us on January 6 said yesterday that she was disappointed with her meeting with Minority Leader McCarthy.
I was hoping that maybe the minority leader would come to the floor and explain to us why he objected to the bipartisan commission, why he objects to the select committee, and why he objects to getting to the truth. But apparently he is not coming. Because, Madam Speaker, there was no rational explanation for putting up roadblocks to get to the truth unless you are trying to keep it hidden.
I am reminded of that old line: If you have got nothing to hide, you have got nothing to fear.
So what are my Republican friends so afraid of, Madam Speaker?
Does a defeated and disgraced President hold so much sway that they are forever unwilling to investigate what happened here?
There was an insurrection in the United States of America, and each of us not only has the ability to figure out what happened, but we have an obligation to do so. An obligation that is more important than party and should come before the whims of any one man, and that includes the former occupant of the White House. So I urge my colleagues to uphold that solemn duty today.
Our system of government isn't guaranteed. It is a choice. Keeping it takes work, and it is time we finally did the work of defending our democracy after a literal insurrection and allow the process of getting to the bottom of what happened on January 6 commence.
I was here. I was presiding over the House when this attack happened. I assumed the chair after the Speaker left. I went out into the hallway, and I saw these people who were crazed trying to get at us. My colleagues were here. Our staff was here. The people who support this campus were here.
The Capitol Police protected us. I mean, I get it. My friends have turned this into some sort of partisan issue. It isn't.
Please, I hope everybody before they vote will think of not just Donald Trump or not just what the minority leader instructs them to do, but think of our police who defended us, think of their staff who put their lives at risk, and think of everybody who works on this campus. They deserve a hell of a lot better than what they are getting here today.
So, Madam Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the select committee, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.
Madam Speaker, I oppose H. Res. 503. The events of January 6 were tragic in so many ways and certainly demand a real investigation, but bipartisan investigations have already taken place in the Senate, and law enforcement also continues to investigate.
We all share the concern for what happened here in Washington, D.C., on that day, and it can never happen again. But unless Democrats abandon their desires for a predetermined outcome, we are doing the American people a disservice.
Moving forward and making sure that it never happens again requires a fully bipartisan solution, not a partisan committee rigged from the start. This resolution is rife with partisan politics at its worst.
Madam Speaker, I urge Members to oppose H. Res. 503, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi).
Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his bringing this important legislation to the floor. I thank our distinguished majority leader for his clarity in presenting the case for this legislation and all of our colleagues who have come to the floor on the Democratic side in the search of truth, justice, and security for our country.
Madam Speaker, I particularly thank Mr. McGovern because on the night of this insurrection, I was in the chair, the security came and pulled me out. He took the chair. He risked his life to take the chair as the assaulters of our Capitol were out to get me with a bullet in the head or to hang the Vice President of the United States, assault the lives of Members of Congress, traumatize our staff, and disrespect the workers in the Capitol.
It was not an ordinary tourist day in the Capitol as the Republicans have characterized. Republicans have characterized it as a normal day in the Congress, when we have pictures of those very same people pushing furniture against the door to keep the intruders out.
We are under the dome of the Capitol, a dome that was built by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War when people said to him: No, we need the steel, the this and the that to fight the war.
He said: No, we need to show our determination.
Madam Speaker, 1 year into the devastation of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln sent a message to Congress imploring Members to join as one to save the Union.
He said: ``Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.''
Madam Speaker, today we go on record. We too have a responsibility, as was described by President Lincoln. We too cannot escape history. We have a duty to the Constitution and to the American people to find the truth of January 6 and to ensure that such an assault on our Democracy can never happen again.
Rather than being frivolous with the facts, we are going to be prayerful and patriotic and honor the concerns of the American people by seeking and finding the truth to protect our country from any future or similar assault.
As has been said many times, that day, January 6, was one of the darkest days of our history. For the Members, the police officers, the staff, the press, and the support workers who were there, the memory of that day remains seared in our memory: the sounds of glass shattering, officers fighting, rioters chanting, the smell of teargas and the taste of smoke in the air and the sight of people fleeing the Capitol or barricading doors as Republicans and Democrats did that night, and the sense of terror, hundreds of people fearing for their lives.
In the aftermath, over 140 members of law enforcement were physically and seriously harmed, five people died, and staff, workers, press, and Members were and still remain traumatized by the experience.
The sheer scale of the violence of that day is shocking. But what is just as shocking is remembering why this violence occurred: to block the certification of an election and the peaceful transfer of power that is the cornerstone of our Democracy. It was a date actually required by the Constitution. It was not just another tourist day in the Capitol.
Congress returned to the Capitol that same night to accomplish our constitutional duty--that same night. Thanks to the workers, the maintenance people here, the Capitol Police, and the rest, we were able to return and send a message to the world that this Congress would honor its constitutional duties regardless of the assault that was made on it.
This was important, and it was bipartisan in the decision. Mr. Hoyer and Mr. McConnell agreed that we would come back.
Where others were saying: Go to an undisclosed location; we said: No, we are going to the Capitol.
Congress returned to the Capitol, as I said, to honor that responsibility. We showed the insurrectionists, the country, and the world that we would not be diverted from our duty. We could do that because of the courage of the Capitol Police, the Metropolitan Police, and other law enforcement, some of whom are with us today.
{time} 1500
I especially want to recognize Gladys Sicknick, the mother of Brian, who gave his life; and Sandra Garza, his friend and partner.
But it is clear that January 6 was not simply an attack on the Capitol building. It was an attack on our democracy. Every Member here knows that January 6 was an attempt to subvert our democracy.
But many across the aisle refuse to admit the truth. They refused to admit the truth when they voted against certifying President Biden's election that night. They refused to admit the truth when they voted against the creating of a bipartisan commission to investigate the attack. They refused to admit the truth when they called that day a
``normal tourist visit.''
And, today, when many will vote against establishing a select committee to investigate that day, they will, again, refuse to admit the truth. But they did that; 100 percent of them voted ``no'' against putting resources to ensure the security of our Capitol Police and the security of this building. 175 Republicans voted ``no'' when it came time for the commission, 35 ``yeses'' on the Republican side.
I am heartbroken that we don't have the bipartisan commission. We yielded on every point.
Numbers, as Mr. Hoyer said, the numbers, the process for subpoenas, the timing, and further yielded on the Senate side on timing again, as well as clarification on staffing, that was never in doubt, but they wanted further clarification.
They thought--the Republican Senators thought that they could win the day over there. They thought they could. And they thought they had the votes, until the Minority Leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, asked them to do him a personal favor and vote against the commission.
Too many of them chose to do Mitch McConnell a personal favor rather than to perform their patriotic duty. And, hence, despite the fact that seven Republican Members either voted or said they would vote for the commission, it was defeated.
They said: Give us another week; give us another week; give us another week; give us another week.
Now it is almost--well, it is 4\1/2\ weeks, and we must go forward.
It does not appear at this time that we can have a bipartisan commission, outside commission. Hopefully, that could still happen. But, in the meantime, we will have a select committee.
This is not unlike what happened in 2001, at the time of the 9/11 Commission. 9/11 happened exactly then, 9/11/2001. It took more than 1 year to get the commission. It was signed into law by the President on November 27, 2002.
In the meantime, there was a Congressional investigation, which was useful to the commission when they finally were formed. So perhaps we can still hope for that, but we cannot wait for it.
To do that, we believe that Congress must, in the spirit of bipartisanship and patriotism, establish this commission. And it will be conducted with dignity, with patriotism, with respect for the American people so that they can know the truth.
It is a funny thing about Mitch saying he wanted them to do him a personal favor. Oh, my goodness.
We had a commission on this side of the Capitol. Bennie Thompson, our distinguished chair of the Homeland Security Committee, working with the ranking member of the committee, Mr. Katko, put together a bipartisan commission. Only 35 Republicans voted for it, even though we responded to every one of their concerns, except, as Mr. Hoyer said, scope. Scope. They just did not want to go to the truth, sadly.
That is why there will be--and, today, we are establishing--a select committee on the January 6 insurrection. It will investigate and report upon the facts and causes of the attack. It will report on conclusions and recommendations for preventing any future assault. And it will find the truth, which, clearly, the Republicans fear; but, hopefully, not across the country.
This committee is about our security, ensuring that a future attack does not happen. It is about patriotism and democracy, ensuring that Congress can continue to serve the American people.
Mr. Hoyer rightfully pointed out that, as the other side likes to say, oh, the Senate did a bipartisan--they were very limited in what they were allowed to do. They were only allowed to investigate the security of the building, not the cause of it, not the fact that it was an insurrection incited by the executive branch. None of that was allowed.
So don't use that as an excuse not to have a fuller investigation of the underlying causes of what happened, the underlying causes of white supremacists and anti-Semites; one man with a Camp Auschwitz shirt on: Six million are not enough.
You would think they would reject that. Not just a normal day of tourism in the Capitol.
In that message to the Congress that I quoted in the beginning from President Lincoln, it concluded by clearly declaring: ``We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of Earth. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just--a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.''
He also said: ``We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We . . . hold the power, and bear the responsibility.''
Today, we, too, hold the power and bear the responsibility. Let all Members do what is right and vote for this legislation. We will be judged by future generations as to how we value our democracy. Let's be on the right side not only of history, but the right side of the future.
I urge my colleagues to vote ``aye.''
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 504, the previous question is ordered on the resolution and the preamble.
The question is on the resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that the ayes appeared to have it.
Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3(s) of House Resolution 8, the yeas and nays are ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 222, nays 190, not voting 19, as follows:
YEAS--222
Adams Aguilar Allred Auchincloss Axne Barragan Bass Beatty Bera Beyer Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bourdeaux Bowman Boyle, Brendan F. Brown Brownley Bush Bustos Butterfield Carbajal Cardenas Carson Carter (LA) Cartwright Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Cheney Chu Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Connolly Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crist Crow Cuellar Davids (KS) Davis, Danny K. Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Delgado Demings DeSaulnier Deutch Dingell Doggett Doyle, Michael F. Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Fletcher Foster Frankel, Lois Gallego Garamendi Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Golden Gomez Gonzalez, Vicente Gottheimer Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Harder (CA) Hayes Higgins (NY) Himes Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Huffman Jackson Lee Jacobs (CA) Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (TX) Jones Kahele Kaptur Keating Kelly (IL) Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim (NJ) Kind Kinzinger Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Leger Fernandez Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lieu Lofgren Lowenthal Luria Lynch Malinowski Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Manning Matsui McBath McCollum McEachin McGovern McNerney Meeks Meng Mfume Moore (WI) Morelle Moulton Mrvan Murphy (FL) Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Newman Norcross O'Halleran Ocasio-Cortez Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Pelosi Perlmutter Peters Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Rice (NY) Ross Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Ryan Sanchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Sewell Sherman Sherrill Sires Slotkin Smith (WA) Soto Spanberger Speier Stansbury Stanton Stevens Strickland Suozzi Swalwell Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Underwood Vargas Veasey Vela Velazquez Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Welch Wexton Wild Williams (GA) Wilson (FL) Yarmuth
NAYS--190
Aderholt Allen Amodei Armstrong Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Barr Bentz Bergman Bice (OK) Biggs Bilirakis Bishop (NC) Boebert Bost Brady Brooks Buchanan Buck Bucshon Budd Burchett Burgess Calvert Cammack Carl Carter (TX) Cawthorn Chabot Cline Clyde Cole Comer Crawford Crenshaw Curtis Davidson Davis, Rodney DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Donalds Duncan Dunn Emmer Estes Fallon Feenstra Ferguson Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Fortenberry Foxx Franklin, C. Scott Gaetz Gallagher Garbarino Garcia (CA) Gibbs Gimenez Gonzales, Tony Gonzalez (OH) Gooden (TX) Gosar Granger Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Greene (GA) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hagedorn Harris Harshbarger Hartzler Hern Herrera Beutler Hice (GA) Hill Hinson Hollingsworth Hudson Huizenga Jacobs (NY) Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Katko Keller Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kim (CA) Kustoff LaHood LaMalfa Lamborn Latta LaTurner Lesko Letlow Long Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Mace Malliotakis Mann Massie Mast McCarthy McCaul McClain McClintock McHenry McKinley Meijer Meuser Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Moolenaar Mooney Moore (AL) Moore (UT) Mullin Murphy (NC) Nehls Newhouse Norman Nunes Obernolte Owens Palazzo Palmer Pence Perry Posey Reed Reschenthaler Rice (SC) Rodgers (WA) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rosendale Rouzer Rutherford Salazar Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Sessions Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Spartz Stauber Steel Stefanik Steil Steube Stewart Taylor Tenney Thompson (PA) Timmons Turner Upton Valadao Van Drew Van Duyne Wagner Walberg Walorski Waltz Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Young Zeldin
NOT VOTING--19
Arrington Banks Carter (GA) Cloud Fulcher Gohmert Good (VA) Herrell Higgins (LA) Issa Jackson Johnson (LA) Miller (IL) Pfluger Rose Roy Tiffany Weber (TX) Williams (TX)
{time} 1545
Mrs. KIM of California and Mr. VAN DREW changed their vote from
``yea'' to ``nay.''
So the resolution was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Members Recorded Pursuant to House Resolution 8, 117th Congress
Babin (Nehls) Boebert (Gosar) Cardenas (Gomez) Cawthorn (Nehls) Cohen (Beyer) Comer (Cammack) Fallon (Nehls) Gallego (Gomez) Garcia (TX) (Jeffries) Grijalva (Stanton) Horsford (Jeffries) Jacobs (NY) (Garbarino) Johnson (TX) (Jeffries) Kirkpatrick (Stanton) Lawson (FL) (Evans) Leger Fernandez (Jacobs (CA)) Lieu (Beyer) Long (Fleischmann) Lowenthal (Beyer) McClain (Bergman) Meng (Jeffries) Mullin (Lucas) Napolitano (Correa) Norman (Wilson (SC)) Owens (Stewart) Payne (Pallone) Ruiz (Aguilar) Rush (Underwood) Sewell (DelBene) Steube (Franklin, C. Scott) Strickland (DelBene) Timmons (Gonzalez (OH)) Wilson (FL) (Hayes) Young (Mast)
____________________
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 114
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