Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) released a statement Wednesday questioning the partisan January 6 commission bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week with the help of 35 Republicans.
“I have many concerns with the House passed bill, but the potential for unequal staffing is the biggest,” Tuberville said in an emailed statement to supporters. “A January 6th commission needs to be truly bipartisan, and that means not only at the member level, but also at the staff level.”
“As it stands now, there is no guarantee that the staff hired would be bipartisan, and we need that guarantee, because we all know who actually does the work on these commissions,” Tuberville added. “Any partisan tipping of the scales would undermine the entire purpose of the commission.”
Tuberville concluded his statement by insisting the Democrats have “politicized this process” as other, bipartisan investigations take place.
“Americans deserve information on what happened that day, but they need to be able to trust it — the Democrats have unnecessarily politicized this process, especially when there are several, truly bipartisan investigation efforts already underway,” Tuberville said.
Other GOP senators, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) have announced support for the commission.
During a Sunday appearance on ABC News, Collins said she “strongly” supports the commission and is “optimistic” that the Senate can work past issues with the House bill.
The House passed H.R. 3233, the National Commission to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol Complex Act, which garnered support from all Democrats in a vote of 252-175.
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