Kansas, Missouri Republican senators will vote to block plan for Jan. 6 commission
All four Republican senators from Kansas and Missouri will vote to block creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The proposal, which passed the House last week, would be modeled on the bipartisan panel that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks two decades ago. The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the measure as early as Thursday, but it’s unlikely to win enough GOP support to clear the chamber’s 60-vote threshold for passage.
Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran’s office confirmed to The Star Thursday that he planned to vote against the measure. Moran had told reporters earlier this week he had not yet decided.
His office has not yet offered an explanation of his rationale. Moran, up for re-election next year, opposed former President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election. But he also voted to acquit Trump at his impeachment trial in February and welcomed his endorsement 12 days later.
Trump has vocally opposed the establishment of a commission.
Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall’s office also confirmed the Kansas freshman — one of just eight senators to vote in favor of blocking Biden’s electors after the riot — will also oppose the commission.
In a statement, Marshall noted that multiple committees and federal law enforcement agencies are already conducting investigations into the attack.
“I am supportive of the numerous ongoing investigations into what exactly happened and where security breakdowns occurred. These investigations will bring to light the needed answers and detail how security at the Capitol can be enhanced moving forward,” Marshall said in a statement.
“However, Nancy Pelosi’s commission is redundant and fails to focus on the broader political violence issues occurring across our country since last summer. This is just Nancy Pelosi’s way of trying to once again shame conservatives,” said Marshall, who closely aligned with Trump during his 2020 campaign.
Marshall has separately proposed legislation to establish a select committee to investigate the origin of COVID-19 and its potential links to a Chinese lab.
Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt has been an outspoken opponent of the commission, contending it would slow Congress down from making needed security changes.
“There’ll be a price — and not just the price of paying for the commission — but the price of waiting for the commission to make its report before we do things we know we need to do,” Blunt told reporters last week.
“Frankly, I don’t think there are that many gaps that need to be filled on what happened Jan. 6 as it relates to building security,” he said.
Blunt is the top Republican on the Senate Rules Committee, which will soon release its own report on the Capitol attack in partnership with the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
Blunt, who is not seeking re-election in 2022, has disputed the notion that Republican opposition to the commission stems from political concerns that it would likely highlight the role Trump and dozens of GOP lawmakers played in amplifying conspiracy theories about the 2020 election before the attack.
Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, the first senator to announce his plan to object to President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, has criticized the “political nature of the commission.”
Hawley, who sent multiple fundraising pleas tied to his election objection, was photographed raising his fist in solidarity with the pro-Trump crowd outside the Capitol shortly before the riot.
During a visit to Ohio, Biden said Thursday that he could not “imagine anyone voting against establishing a commission on the greatest assault since the Civil War on the Capitol.”
Opposition from the Kansas City region’s senators comes after the family of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died of a stroke the day after the riot, has been personally urging Republican senators to back the measure.
Only four Republicans have expressed support for establishing the commission— Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, all of whom voted to convict Trump of incitement of insurrection at the February trial.
Without seven more Republicans to join these three, the proposal will fall short of the 60 votes needed to clear the filibuster rule in the 50-50 Senate.
The Senate vote will likely intensify pressure on moderate Democrats, particularly West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, to support ending the filibuster rule, a progressive policy goal that they have so far rebuffed.
House Democrats will still be able to pursue their own inquiry of Jan. 6, but the bill’s likely failure in the Senate could end the possibility of a bipartisan panel.
The Kansas City area’s delegation split along party lines for last week’s House vote with only the region’s Democrats supporting the proposal.
Missouri Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who was accompanying first lady Jill Biden during her trip in Kansas City, said he was hurt and embarrassed by the region’s senators’ opposition.
“I’m disappointed, but the whole nation ought to be disappointed because it is a very bold statement that damages us abroad, that the United States government is broken, that the people are devilishly divided and that we can’t investigate the worst attack, actually, on the United States government in history,” Cleaver said Thursday, noting that the Capitol wasn’t breached during the Civil War as it was in January.
“We need to try and figure out how we can avoid this from happening,” Cleaver said. “Look, my constituents can’t even come visit me in my office. You know, we had tens of thousands of people walking the halls every day before Jan. 6 and now they can’t. And that’s not good for democracy.”
The Star’s Jonathan Shorman contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 27, 2021 at 1:17 PM with the headline "Kansas, Missouri Republican senators will vote to block plan for Jan. 6 commission."
