Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) moved on Tuesday to tee up a vote on the House-passed bill to create a commission probing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“Filibustering a bipartisan commission regarding the January 6 insurrection is a three dimensional way to make the point that the filibuster is primarily a destructive force in American politics,” he said.
The Jan. 6 bill is the one of several items on the Senate’s agenda over a crucial summer period that could spark deep tensions over the 60-vote legislative filibuster and build pressure for Democrats to unify behind nixing it.
The filibuster has largely laid dormant for the first four months of Biden’s administration with Democrats using reconciliation to squeak through a $1.9 trillion infrastructure package and the Senate focused on nominations, which can pass without GOP support, and smaller, bipartisan bills.
The moderate Democrats said in a statement Tuesday that they “could never have imagined an attack on Congress and our Capitol at the hands of our own citizens.”
“In the hours and days following the attack, Republican and Democratic members of Congress condemned the violence and vowed to hold those responsible accountable so our Democracy will never experience an attack like this again,” the pair said.
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Manchin and Sinema touted the House s bipartisan passage last week of the bill to create a Jan. 6 commission, calling it a “critical step to ensuring our nation never has to endure an attack at the hands of our countrymen again.”
Murkowski to back Jan 6 commission bill thehill.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thehill.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Schumer took his bill with Sen. Todd Young
“By making these bold investments, will send a very strong message, if we can get this passed out of the Senate floor in the next couple of weeks which I believe we will, in addition to some other pieces of legislation also pertaining to China and countering China’s malign behavior,” Young told Fox Business last week.
But Republicans are still pushing for additional amendments to the legislation, after the Senate took a handful of votes last week.
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“As I was discussing with Senator Schumer this morning, for most Members, this 1,500-page substitute bill landed on their desks just a little bit earlier this week, so it is going to take a little time for us to understand and to digest the complexity and the ambitions, really, I should say, of this bill,” Sen. John Cornyn