The U.S. Senate blocked an effort Friday to establish a probe into the Jan. 6 riots, marking the first successful legislative filibuster this session.
By a 54-35 vote, the Senate blocked an effort to open debate on the bill. According to reports, Democrats are now considering opening their own probe into the attacks.
“Democrats worked across the aisle, agreeing to everything that Republicans asked for,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after the vote. “We did this in the interest of achieving a bipartisan commission. In not taking yes for an answer, Republicans clearly put their election concerns above the security of the Congress and country.”
Six Republican senators voted in favor of advancing the bill: Mitt Romney (Utah), Susan Collins (Maine); Bill Cassidy (Louisiana); Rob Portman (Ohio); Lisa Murkowski (Alaska); and Ben Sasse (Nebraska). At least 10 Senate Republicans were needed to join all Democrats to advance the bill. Nine GOP senators did not cast votes on the move: Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee); Roy Blunt (Missouri); Mike Braun (Indiana); Richard Burr (North Carolina); Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma); Mike Rounds (South Dakota); James Risch (Idaho); Richard Shelby (Alabama); and Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania).
In a letter to other Senators, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said :Senate Republicans, at the personal request of Leader McConnell, also continue their brazen attempts to whitewash the attack of January 6th by filibustering the House-passed bipartisan January 6th Commission, even though Speaker Pelosi and I agreed to changes proposed by Senator Collins.”
Broad Republican opposition was expected, even as the family of a Capitol Police officer who collapsed and died after the siege and other officers who battled rioters went office to office asking GOP senators to support the commission. The insurrection was the worst attack on the Capitol in 200 years and interrupted the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s win over Trump.
A vote on the procedural motion was bumped to Friday after delays on an unrelated bill to boost scientific research and development pushed back the schedule.
Though the Jan. 6 commission bill passed the House earlier this month with the support of almost three dozen Republicans, GOP senators said they believe the commission would eventually be used against them politically. And former President Trump, who still has a firm hold on the party, has called it a “Democrat trap.”
While initially saying he was open to the idea of the commission, which would be modeled after an investigation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell turned firmly against it in recent days. He has said he believes the panel’s investigation would be partisan despite the even split among party members.
McConnell, who once said Trump was responsible for provoking the mob attack on the Capitol, said of Democrats, “They’d like to continue to litigate the former president, into the future.”
Still, a handful of Republicans — if not enough to save it — were expected to vote to move forward with the bill. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has said she will support the legislation because she needs to know more about what happened that day and why.
“Truth is hard stuff, but we’ve got a responsibility to it,” she told reporters Thursday evening. “We just can’t pretend that nothing bad happened, or that people just got too excitable. Something bad happened. And it’s important to lay that out.”
Of her colleagues opposing the commission, Murkowski said some are concerned that “we don’t want to rock the boat.”
The Republican opposition to the bipartisan panel has revived Democratic pressure to do away with the filibuster, a time-honored Senate tradition that requires a vote by 60 of the 100 senators to cut off debate and advance a bill. With the Senate evenly split 50-50, Democrats need support of 10 Republicans to move to the commission bill, sparking fresh debate over whether the time has come to change the rules and lower the threshold to 51 votes to take up legislation.
The Republicans’ political arguments over the violent siege — which is still raw for many in the Capitol, almost five months later — have frustrated not only Democrats but also those who fought off the rioters.
“We have a mob overtake the Capitol, and we can’t get the Republicans to join us in making historic record of that event? That is sad,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat. “That tells you what’s wrong with the Senate and what’s wrong with the filibuster.”
Many Democrats are warning that if Republicans are willing to use the filibuster to stop an arguably popular measure, it shows the limits of trying to broker compromises, particularly on bills related to election reforms or other aspects of the Democrats’ agenda.
For now, though, Democrats don’t have the votes to change the rule. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, both moderate Democrats, have said they want to preserve the filibuster.
Biden, asked about the commission at a stop in Cleveland, said Thursday, “I can’t imagine anyone voting against” it.
Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who once supported the idea of the commission, said he now believes Democrats are trying to use it as a political tool.
“I don’t think this is the only way to get to the bottom of what happened,” Cornyn said, noting that Senate committees are also looking at the siege.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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