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Senate Republicans Block Jan. 6 Riot Commission
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© joseph prezioso/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesWASHINGTON—Senate Republicans blocked the creation of a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, after GOP leaders urged colleagues to reject it.
The bill needed 60 votes to advance in the evenly divided Senate, thanks to the chamber’s longstanding filibuster rule. That means 10 Republicans would have had to vote with all 50 members of the Democratic caucus to allow the bill to proceed. Only six did, and the legislation fell short, with 54 votes in favor, 35 against and 11 senators not voting.
The six Republicans who voted in favor of proceeding with the legislation were Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mitt Romney of Utah and Ben Sasse of Nebraska. All but Mr. Portman had voted to convict former President Donald Trump in February at his impeachment trial on charges of inciting insurrection on Jan. 6. Mr. Trump was acquitted.
Two Democrats weren’t present for the vote: Sens. Patty Murray of Washington state and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Nine Republicans also didn’t vote, including Sens. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Richard Burr of North Carolina, both of whom were among the seven GOP senators who voted to convict Mr. Trump earlier this year.
The Senate had been scheduled to vote on the commission Thursday but procedural delays on separate legislation forced it into Friday. Sens. Murray and Toomey said Friday that they had missed the vote because of family obligations, but they would have voted yes.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) had declared his opposition to the commission before the vote, calling it a political exercise. He suggested that Democrats would weaponize the commission against Republican candidates to keep the controversy over former President Donald Trump’s actions before and during the riot at the forefront of next year’s midterm-election campaigns.
Mr. McConnell also had said there was no need for a commission because Jan. 6 already is being investigated by congressional committees and by law enforcement.
“There is no new fact about that day that we need the Democrats’ extraneous commission to uncover,” Mr. McConnell said Thursday.
Democrats could impanel their own special congressional committee to investigate the events surrounding Jan. 6, but party leaders, including President Biden, have said they prefer an independent, bipartisan probe, modeled on the investigation carried out by the 9/11 Commission following the 2001 terrorist strikes.
“The investigations will happen with or without Republicans,” said Mr. Cassidy, who cited the likelihood of a Democratic-driven congressional probe in a statement explaining why he voted to authorize an independent commission Friday. “To ensure the investigations are fair, impartial and focused on the facts, Republicans need to be involved,” he said.
White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Mr. Biden “has been clear that the shameful events of Jan. 6 need to be independently and fully investigated. He remains committed to that and we will continue to work with Congress to find a path forward.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said after the vote that the commission was desperately needed to counter Mr. Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen from him.
“This vote has made it official: Donald Trump’s Big Lie has now fully enveloped the Republican Party. Donald Trump’s Big Lie is now the defining principle of what was once the party of Lincoln.”
Mr. Schumer told reporters Friday that he supported moving forward with a Democratic-led investigation, while noting that he might force another vote on the commission.
“It would be much better to do it in a bipartisan way, and that’s what this bill did, but better to investigate with a select committee than not investigate,” he said.
Mr. Trump has urged Republicans in the House and Senate to oppose the commission, calling it a Democratic trap. The House impeached Mr. Trump in January for inciting insurrection against the U.S. government on Jan. 6, when his supporters stormed the Capitol, trying to stop lawmakers from ratifying Democrat Mr. Biden’s Electoral College win.
The House authorized the creation of the commission last week, 252 to 175, with 35 Republicans voting with Democrats in defiance of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) and Mr. Trump. But without Senate passage, the commission can’t be established.
The legislation was the product of talks between the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Democrat Bennie G. Thompson of Mississippi, and the panel’s top-ranking Republican, John Katko of New York. The panel would have had five members appointed by Democratic leaders and five by Republican leaders. Both sides would have shared responsibility for issuing subpoenas.
In a last-ditch effort to round up enough Republican votes to save the commission, Ms. Collins led an effort to make some changes to the House-passed bill, including tweaking the language so it said that commission staff would be appointed jointly by the Democratic-appointed chair and Republican-appointed vice chair, rather than by the chair “in consultation with” the vice chair, as was the case for the 9/11 commission.
Ms. Collins also proposed giving the GOP appointees an equal budget to hire their own staff if the chair and vice chair couldn’t agree in 10 days, and terminating the commission 30 days after the end of this year, rather than 60. After the vote Friday she told reporters she was disappointed in the final tally.
Mr. Toomey’s office said Friday that had he been in Washington, his vote to advance the commission bill would have been with the expectation that the Senate would consider, and Mr. Toomey would have supported, an amendment that included the changes Ms. Collins had proposed. Mr. Portman also got a verbal commitment from Mr. Schumer that the Senate’s Democratic leader supported the Collins amendment, according to a person familiar with their conversation. In his letter to Senate Democrats Friday, Mr. Schumer confirmed that both he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) had agreed to Ms. Collins’ requests.
But Mr. McConnell made it clear that no changes to the commission could win his support, and other Republican senators agreed nothing could convince them to get on board.
Most Republicans were unswayed by the mother and girlfriend of late Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. Gladys Sicknick and Sandra Garza had requested meetings with GOP lawmakers on the Hill on Thursday, urging them to establish the commission.
“We respectfully disagreed that I think this commission would be partisan, and really has no value,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.), after meeting with Mrs. Sicknick and Ms. Garza on Thursday. He voted no on Friday.
Mr. Sicknick was assaulted during the Jan. 6 riot and suffered a stroke. He died the next day of natural causes, according to the medical examiner’s office in Washington, D.C.
About 140 officers were injured on Jan. 6 while defending Congress, according to the Capitol Police union.
Several congressional committees are investigating the government’s planning and response to the riot, and the internal watchdogs of four government agencies have also launched reviews of officials’ actions. In addition, the Justice Department’s criminal probe has led to charges against more than 400 people for offenses stemming from the Jan. 6 attack.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.), a moderate Democrat who had pleaded with Republican colleagues to vote yes, vented his frustration as he left the Senate floor Friday, with the commission headed for defeat.
“I’m very disappointed, very frustrated that politics has trumped—literally and figuratively—the good of the country,” Mr. Manchin said.
Write to Lindsay Wise at lindsay.wise@wsj.com and Eliza Collins at eliza.collins+1@wsj.com.
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