[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 12 (Thursday, January 21, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E59]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON THE INSURRECTIONIST ATTACK 
                   UPON THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL ACT

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 21, 2021

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I rise to introduce the National 
Commission on the Insurrectionist Attack Upon the United States Capitol 
Act, which would create a national commission to provide a complete 
account surrounding the attack on the United States Capitol on January 
6, 2021, including preparedness and response. The commission would also 
present recommendations on how to protect our country from future 
attacks. My bill is modeled on the bipartisan legislation that created 
a national commission to investigate the terrorist attacks of September 
11, 2001.
  What happened on January 6, 2021, is no less grave, no less revealing 
than what happened to our country in 2001. In 2001, we realized that we 
were woefully unprepared for a foreign terrorist attack. The bipartisan 
national commission created by Congress conducted an unbiased 
investigation and helped us improve our defenses against international 
threats.
  Now we are faced with another threat, but this one does not come from 
outside, it comes from within. The people who ransacked and defaced the 
U.S. Capitol, the people who threatened elected officials trying to 
fulfill their constitutional duty were not foreigners; they were 
Americans. In order to tackle this new internal threat to our 
democracy, we must understand it, and we cannot understand it without 
investigating how this attack on the U.S. Capitol occurred.
  The commission created by my bill would draw upon all available 
evidence and prior investigations to generate a full and complete 
accounting of the circumstances of the attack and the country's 
preparedness for and immediate response to the attack. This commission 
must be above the fray of politics to give us clear answers on what 
happened on January 6th. The American people deserve unbiased answers.
  What happened is deeply personal for me and for many who live or grew 
up in the District of Columbia, where the U.S. Capitol is located. We 
all recognize the U.S. Capitol as a sacred symbol of democracy, but 
domestic terrorists came into my hometown and wreaked mayhem on our 
federal governing institutions. The commission would provide definitive 
answers to help Congress determine policies to ward off such attacks in 
the future.
  I urge my colleagues to support this important bill.

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