House Passes Bill Establishing Commission Investigating January 6 Riots

The House passed legislation Wednesday that would establish a commission to investigate the riots and protests at the Capitol on January 6.

The House passed H.R. 3233, the National Commission to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol Complex Act.

The bill passed 252-175, featuring strong Democrat support and some Republican support.

Roughly 35 Republicans voted for the legislation.

Prior to the vote, Republicans relayed their concerns about the bill.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said that many committees already have the infrastructure to conduct an investigation into the January 6 protests and riots.

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) said on the House floor before the vote, “Benghazi. You guys chased the former Sec of State all over the country … we have people scaling the Capitol, hitting the USCP w/lead pipes across the head & we can’t get bipartisanship?”

“This is a slap in the face to cops across the country … we need two political parties in this country that are both living in reality. And you ain’t one of them,” Ryan added.

Although the bill did pass through Congress’s lower chamber, the legislation faces a higher threshold to pass in the Senate.

After House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced their opposition, Politico wrote that their opposition would likely embolden many Republicans to oppose the commission in the Senate.

“It’s hard to see this passing the Senate with only about a dozen Republicans voting for it in the House,” the outlet wrote Tuesday.

When McCarthy announced his opposition to the bill, he said that Democrats did not negotiate in good faith with Republicans.

“Republican requests for fair representation and an unbiased premise from which to begin such an investigation were always understood to be the starting point for bipartisan negotiations, not the end result,” the House GOP leader said in a statement, that continued:

Given the political misdirections that have marred this process, given the now duplicative and potentially counterproductive nature of this effort, and given the Speaker’s shortsighted scope that does not examine interrelated forms of political violence in America.

McCarthy said, “I cannot support this legislation.”