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Solemnly Recognizing the 5th Anniversary of January 6

Floor Speech

Date: Jan. 6, 2026
Location: Washington, DC

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Mr. DeSAULNIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on the fifth anniversary of an awful day in American history and this Chamber.

I was one of the last Members of Congress evacuated by the Capitol Police into a room just to my left off the floor. On that day, the damage caused is hard to quantify. Mr. Speaker, 174 Capitol Police officers were injured while protecting this sacred place, and 5 officers lost their lives. The Capitol itself sustained $30 million in damages. In total, that day cost American taxpayers $2.7 billion, Mr. Speaker. Think of that.

While the insurrectionists did not succeed that day, they did cause even bigger damage than the dollar damage. The person most responsible for this continues to behave the way he did then.

George Santayana famously said that those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. I pray that that is not the case. We must remember honestly, all of us, what happened that day.

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