Senate Republicans Block Vote For January 6th Commission

The Senate vote to create a commission to investigate the Capitol Riots on January 6th was delayed yesterday but, did get voted down today. The law fell short of the 10 Senate Republican votes they need to advance it. Overnight, Republican Senators delayed passage of a bill which is designed to increase American competitiveness with China which means the vote on the bill to create the commission also had to wait. Supporters of the commission pleaded with the GOP throughout the week in order to convince 10 Republicans to back it. We do not know who voted for what, just yet, but three Senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine had indicated their plans to join Democrats to support the bill.

Murkowski urged her colleagues to support it saying “to be making a decision for the short-term political gain at the expense of understanding and acknowledging what was in front of us, on January 6th,  I think we need to look at that critically.” The mother of Capitol Policeman Brian Sicknick met with over a dozen Republican Senators and urged them to vote to establish the commission. During those meetings most of the Senators told her they wouldn’t be changing their minds. Last week the House passed the bill on a vote of 252-175, 35 Republicans joined all of the Democrats in support of the bill.