Emergency Security Supplemental to Respond to January 6th Appropriations Act, 2021

Floor Speech

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Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the bill. It provides funding to respond to the January 6 attack, during which violent insurrectionists, incited and encouraged by the former President, attacked this Capitol where we stand today.

Since the attack, the Committee on House Administration, assisted by General Honore, has reviewed Capitol security and has been examining the Capitol Police's preparation for and response to the attack.

The supplemental narrowly tailors a response to that attack. It makes sure that we have the physical improvements we know will need to be taken, and it supports the Capitol Police with wellness and trauma support and provides officers with the training and riot control equipment they should have had on the 6th.

For those who say we should not do anything today, it is a mistake to say if we can't do everything at the same time, we should do nothing.

This bill is a first step toward having a more secure facility that lodges the legislative branch of government. There are measures that we sent to the House Administration Committee for further review. I welcome that.

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Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, to fail to act today is really to turn your backs on the men and women who fought as Capitol Police officers just yards from where we stand today. They were maimed. Their eyes were gouged. They lost fingers. Some of them died.

Don't turn your backs on them and vote against this bill.

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Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, we had a hearing yesterday that went for more than 3 hours. We are likely to have additional hearings on that matter. It is not clear at the moment whether the board needs to be replaced, whether it was failings of the structure, or whether it was failings of the individuals holding the positions in that structure.

If I may, we will come forward with our best analysis of what changes should be made in the weeks to come.

Meanwhile, these officers need our support today. We can't hold back and do nothing.

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Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, I would take exception to that. The House Administration Committee has had more oversight and more hearings, both at a Member level and a staff level, than any other committee in the House or Senate about the Capitol Police.

We don't have jurisdiction over everything, but we have not been derelict in our duty. And I take exception on the part of the whole committee, Republicans and Democrats, and their staff.

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Ms. LOFGREN. Will the gentlewoman yield?

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Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, most of what is in this bill doesn't need a change in the law. You don't need a change in the law to provide training to the Capitol Police. That is baseline what our obligation is.

We failed to actually do what we are required to do, and to think that some further legislative action is needed is simply false.

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