Anniversary of January 6
Floor Speech
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Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, it was this time of the evening 5 years ago that the Senate had returned here to this Chamber and then gone back across to the House of Representatives to continue counting the ballots from each State, the ballots for the electors, the electoral college, the number of which would determine who would be the next President of the United States.
It is steeped in tradition. It is a complicated system because we don't have a direct election for a President, and it involves these beautiful boxes that would be displayed here on the Senate desk. They have the official statements and envelopes from all the secretaries of state across the country saying: We are validating that this is the slate from our State elections.
And then when the counting would begin in the House, we would parade over to the House of Representatives, and the ballots would start to be opened, one State and then another. And it was that evening when we started with the alphabet, beginning with the As, and when we came to the third State starting with an A, Arizona, there was an objection to validation of the slate.
And it is at that moment that we journeyed back from the House of Representatives here, and those beautiful wooden boxes with straps and buckles were replaced on the table here before the dais of the Senate. And then as we were in that moment of preparing to debate whether or not we would agree or disagree with the acceptance of the slate of electors from Arizona, that is when all hell broke loose. That is when rioters stormed the Senate steps, beat up the police officers, pushed through, and came into the Capitol seeking to stop the peaceful transfer of power, a moment none of us ever expected to witness in our lifetime.
In the course of that riot, more than 170 police officers were injured, and as a consequence of that day, five police officers died.
I would never believe it if I was reading a book, a novel, a fiction story about the Senate that rioters would storm the Capitol. I would never believe that this Chamber would be taken over by those rioters, that their fierce assault with flag poles and fire extinguishers and all sorts of handcrafted weapons would result in the death of a group of officers and more than 170 being injured. But it happened.
The end of that day was a good story because we returned to this Chamber, and we re-paraded over to the House and continued the counting and proceeded to establish who would be the next President of the United States of America.
But it feels particularly important today to honor those who defended this Capitol. It was certainly not within their frame of reference the degree to which that riot would be ginned up. Ginned up are the words of our then-sitting, outgoing President, President Trump, who wanted to interrupt the counting of the ballots, so he could continue to be President, break this chain of peaceful transition that had existed for 200-plus years.
It really was not within the frame of reference of any of us; it was outside the box of what we considered possible, what happened this evening 5 years ago. This is why earlier today, I was shocked to read that the plaque that we had passed a law to commemorate the service of the officers, that that plaque had been cast in bronze, but never actually displayed as required by the law that we adopted in 2022.
Here we are on the 5-year anniversary, and we have never put up this plaque. I have the plaque right here. It is incredibly elegant, a picture of the Capitol, and it says:
``On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended this symbol''--
The Capitol. ``this symbol of democracy on January 6, 2021. Their heroism will never be forgotten.''
And yet this plaque is forgotten--stuffed into a room, out of sight, never mounted.
How can that possibly be the case? We passed a law that this would be displayed. So, well, this is the night to fix that. This is the night to come, draft a simple resolution, and say: We here in the Senate, Democrats and Republicans together, want to see this plaque up on a wall.
Our leadership on both sides has already agreed to put up the plaque, but to do so in the course as required by the 2022 law requires some agreement from down the hall in the House of Representatives that, for whatever reason, hasn't been secured. But we can at least get it placed up here on the second floor of the Senate, the floor where we sat 5 years ago, the floor where the House sat 5 years ago. The Chambers are on this floor where we had the ballots from the States across the country that contained the electoral college slates.
So I drafted a resolution, and I wanted to be able to get unanimous consent tonight, but I also want it to be bipartisan. And it turns out that sometimes the gears here move more slowly, even on simple tasks, than one would like. But instead of asking for unanimous consent on this resolution tonight, instead, I am going to work with a colleague across the aisle, a colleague, a Republican from North Carolina, Thom Tillis, who came here earlier today with the same sentiment in his heart that I have in my heart that this plaque needs to be up, needs to be up in the hallway here on the second floor.
And pending resolution of agreement with the House on where it should be, we can put it up here.
So I will read you the resolution, and here it is:
Directing the Architect of the Capitol to prominently display in a publicly accessible location on the second floor of the Senate wing of the United States Capitol, a plaque honoring the members of law enforcement responding on January 6, 2021, until the plaque can be placed in its permanent location; whereas, the United States owes its deepest gratitude to these officers of the United States Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Colombia, as well as officers from other Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies and protective entities who valiantly protected the United States Capitol, Members of Congress, and staff on January 6, 2021; whereas, section 214 of division 1 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 directed that a plaque be placed on the western front of the United States Capitol to honor the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended this symbol of democracy, the United States Capitol, on January 6, 2021; and whereas their heroism should never be forgotten, now therefore be it resolved that the Architect of the Capitol shall prominently display the plaque authorized by section 214 of division 1 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 in a publicly accessible location on the second floor of the Senate wing of the United States Capitol until such time as the plaque can be placed at a permanent location on the western front of the United States Capitol.
So my colleague from North Carolina Senator Tillis and I are carrying this sentiment in our heart; that here on the fifth anniversary, in which so many officers sacrificed so much, sustaining injuries, five sustaining death as a result of what transpired here, this plaque needs to go up, and it needs to go up this week.
But tonight, I am not asking unanimous consent because I want colleagues on both sides of the aisle to be able to do what is appropriate in the U.S. Senate, to be familiar with this, so that they can willingly--and, hopefully, enthusiastically--agree that this will be done.
Let not this representation of our appreciation of the sacrifice of the Capitol Police and other police departments--Federal, State, and local--that came to the defense of this Capitol, let this symbol of our appreciation not sit, stuffed into a back room, but be prominently displayed here on the second floor of the Senate wing of the Capitol because their heroism must never be forgotten.
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