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07Congressional Earmarks, Limited Tax Benefits, or Limited Tariff Benefits
Daily Digest
Public Bills and Resolutions Introduced
17 public bills, H.R. 6938- 6954; and 4 resolutions, H.J. Res. 136; and H. Res. 974-976, were introduced.
Pages H11-12
Reports Filed
There were no reports filed today. Whole Number of the House: The Speaker announced to the House that, in light of the resignation of the gentlewoman from Georgia, Ms. Greene, and the passing of the gentleman from California, Mr. LaMalfa, the whole number of the House is 431.
Page H3
Call of the House
The Speaker called the House to order and ascertained the presence of a quorum (406 present, Roll No. 1).
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Committee to Notify the President of the Assembly of the House
The House agreed to H. Res. 974, authorizing the Speaker to appoint a committee on the part of the House to notify the President that a quorum of the House has assembled, and that the House is ready to receive any communication that he may be pleased to make. Subsequently, the Speaker appointed Representatives Scalise and Jeffries to the committee.
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Notifying the Senate That a Quorum of the House Has Assembled
The House agreed to H. Res. 975, authorizing the Clerk of the House to inform the Senate that a quorum of the House has assembled and that the House is ready to proceed with business.
Page H4
Meeting Hour
The House agreed to H. Res. 976, providing for the hour of meeting of the House.
Page H4
Morning Hour Debate
Agreed by unanimous consent that the order of the House of January 3, 2025, providing for Morning Hour Debate, be extended for the remainder of the 119th Congress, except that H. Res. 976 shall supplant H. Res. 6.
Page H4
Notification of Intent to Offer Motion to Discharge
Representative Jeffries notified the House of his intent to offer a motion to discharge the Committee on Rules from further consideration of H. Res. 780, providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 1834) to advance policy priorities that will break the gridlock.
Page H4
Committee Resignation
Read a letter from Representative Rutherford wherein he resigned from the Committee on Ethics.
Page H4
Quorum Calls: Votes
One quorum call (Roll No. 1) developed during the proceedings of today and appears on pages H3-4. Adjournment: The House met at 6:30 p.m. and adjourned at 8:16 p.m.
Every speech and line is the Congressional Record's own text, read from GovInfo. Speakers are matched to members by GPO's own metadata. Referandom places each turn on the Clerk's video by matching its words: 38 of 53 spoken turns were found. Turns without a time are still listed; they just can't seek.
Call of the House
The SPEAKER pro tempore. A call of the House is ordered to ascertain the presence of a quorum.
Members will record their presence by electronic device.
The call was taken by electronic device, and the following Members responded to their names:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. On this roll call, 406 Members have recorded their presence.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the order of the House of January 3, 2025, providing for morning- hour debate be extended for the remainder of the 119th Congress, except that House Resolution 976 shall supplant House Resolution 6.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Pennsylvania?
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 2(c) of rule XV, I rise to provide notice of my intent to offer a motion to discharge the Committee on Rules from the further consideration of House Resolution 780.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Does did the gentleman sign the petition?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 2(c) of rule XV, a motion to discharge is privileged only at a time designated by the Speaker within 2 legislative days after the intent to offer such motion is offered.
The Chair will entertain the gentleman's motion at that time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Denise Sticha for 30 years of dedicated service to communities across Pennsylvania's 15th Congressional District and beyond.
Denise recently retired as the executive director of Centre County Library and Historical Museum, a position she has held for more than 7 years.
In this position, Denise oversaw library services for 29 municipalities. This included the main library in Bellefonte, branch libraries in Centre Hall and Phillipsburg, a world-class research library, and a local historical museum in Bellefonte.
In 1981, Denise began her career at the Murrysville Library. Following her position at the Murrysville Library, Denise worked at various institutions, including Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Westmoreland County Federated Library System, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and Berks County Public Libraries.
Mr. Speaker, Denise has provided exceptional literary services to communities across the State, being an outstanding leader and mentor to many.
I wish Denise the best and thank her for her many years of service.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the insurrection that took place here in this Capitol Building, in this very room, at this very podium, on January 6, 2021.
Five years ago today, I watched with the American people the events that took place as an attempt to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election took place, all incited by the President.
I was not in Congress that day, but today, as I stand on the House floor, everything has a different feel. It has a personal connection to that day.
I think of the violence visited upon the Capitol Police, the same ones that I greet every morning as I walk into the building. I think of staff and Members crouching under these very chairs in this Chamber.
Everyone who works here for the people of this country does so because they believe in our democracy, and they believe in upholding our democracy.
On this day, 5 years ago, this institution was tested. Lives were lost in the days and months that followed. I am disgusted by the attempts to whitewash what happened that day, to deny and lie about what is true. The truth will be told yet.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President.
Mr. Speaker, do we rubberstamp fraudulent election results or stand for election integrity? That was the question before Congress 5 years ago today.
It was a sunny day in Washington. A largely peaceful protest was growing outside and, unfortunately, made its way into the Capitol. As a result, a joint session of Congress, originally set to be conducted in the afternoon, wasn't finished until midnight or after.
Yet, the events of that day didn't change the serious concerns raised about the ways six States conducted their elections. Members of Congress still had a constitutional duty to defend our Nation's election laws.
I was proud to object to the results in six States and vote not to certify the results of the two States that came to a vote in this room on that day. I was proud to stand for our election laws and to stand with President Trump.
The American people remember that election well, and they remember those Members of Congress who turned their backs on election integrity and principle.
Mr. Speaker, in 2025, we fought every day to deliver real results for eastern North Carolinians, putting working families, veterans, and rural communities first.
Our CARE Act provisions became law, strengthening healthcare for our veterans.
Our servicemembers will receive a well-earned pay raise, and millions of Federal dollars are coming to eastern North Carolina for schools, water systems, fire departments, and public safety.
After 2024 redistricting, we expanded our offices so people could get help close to home, and we will do it again.
We backed job-creating investments that meant good-paying jobs and a stronger economy.
We stood with our military, first responders, farmers, seniors, and students, securing major investments for a child development center and a combat training facility at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.
It was a year of action and results, ensuring eastern North Carolina is never, ever forgotten.
Mr. Speaker, Doug LaMalfa, American patriot, will always be appreciated for his dedicated service for families.
In 2025, House Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, worked closely with President Donald Trump with real results for American families first. Promises made. Promises kept.
There was Republican success on border security, unleashing American energy, keeping money in the pockets of families through lower taxes, and more.
House Republicans passed 441 bills, and 70 executive orders were codified. Passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act created jobs and prevented the largest tax increase in history. Republicans passed effective border enforcement with enhanced border infrastructure and funded military readiness to defeat the axis of evil: war criminal Putin, the Chinese Communist Party, and Teheran murderers.
In conclusion, God bless our troops as the global war on terrorism continues. Trump is reinstituting peace through strength, revealing war criminal Putin lies, insulting and mocking Trump, fabricating a nonexistent attack on the Putin mansion.
With President Donald Trump, I look forward to a legislative year dedicated to the memory of Congressman Doug LaMalfa.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of lowering costs for working families in my district who deserve better than to be ripped off by big corporations.
Last month, the Guardian exposed dollar stores for quietly overcharging customers. The report found evidence of a systematic scam where companies like Dollar General and Family Dollar leave the wrong price tags on products and hope that customers don't notice when it rings up higher at the register.
That is just wrong, especially when dollar stores are sometimes the only nearby option for everyday items.
States have tried to crack down on this practice, but often the penalties aren't enough to deter the practice.
That is why I led 29 Members of Congress in a letter to Dollar General and Family Dollar to hold them accountable.
Because when inflation is crushing families, we won't let big corporations squeeze people who are just trying to get by.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate what matters in America: good character in the personhood of a remarkable woman, Heidi Hess, whose quiet strength has shaped the very heart of emergency care in northwestern Ohio. I thank Heidi for 36 years.
Heidi stood at the front of the classroom at Owens Community College, and she prepared over 1,000 men and women to answer the most urgent calls and tackle those lifesaving moments when every second counts. You know how hard that is?
Her students become paramedics, EMTs, and lifesavers. They learned to carry with them her calm, steady voice and deep compassion for humanity.
Heidi's gift has never been just in teaching technique. It has been in teaching purpose. She instilled in each student that service is sacred and that courage and empathy partners in every response. Her gifts saved thousands of lives and comforted families.
Through wisdom and devotion, Heidi built a living legacy of protection and care across our region. From all of us in northwestern Ohio and every life touched by those she trained, thank you to Heidi Hess. What a great American she is.
I thank her for giving her heart and skills to others for decades. I wish her joy, good health, and satisfaction in her well-earned retirement. I and our citizenry are so proud and thankful for you.
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.
Mr. Speaker, it is a somber day of remembrance in our Nation's Capital. It was on this day 5 years ago when this Chamber, the people's House of the United States of America, was viciously attacked by a violent mob.
No tweet, no post, no spin, no disgusting lie-filled website is going to change the facts of the history of what happened on that day.
I rise today to honor the men and women who with great courage and sacrifice defended this Capitol Building. Our Capitol Police are still being treated with disrespect and now denigration from the President who today has accused them of somehow being responsible for their own beatings. They have already given so much.
Mr. Speaker, the leader of this Chamber is bound by law to hang the plaque in remembrance of what these brave men and women did on January 6, and there is no excuse, no excuse, for his moral failure.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from South Carolina?
Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise today to co-anchor the CBC Special Order along with my distinguished colleague, Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland.
For the next 60 minutes, members of the CBC have an opportunity to speak directly to the American people on the January 6 insurrection attack, an issue of great importance to the Congressional Black Caucus, the constituents we represent, and all Americans.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay homage to the men and women who 5 years ago risked their lives protecting the lives of those elected officials who met in this Hall in fulfillment of their constitutional duties to peacefully transfer Presidential power after the November 2020 elections.
Mr. Speaker, January 6, 2021, will be forever remembered for the vicious unprecedented insurrection that took place on that date.
On December 31, 2025, the House Judiciary Committee released the transcript of its December 17 private 8-hour interview with Special Counsel Jack Smith, whose investigation into the events of that day led him to describe January 6 as an event that ``does not happen'' without President Trump.
Smith testified that Donald Trump is the `` `most culpable and most responsible person' in the criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election.'' He continued: ``These crimes were committed for his benefit. . . . The other co-conspirators were doing this for his benefit.'' Smith concluded that Trump caused the violence, exploited it, and refused to stop it.
Mr. Speaker, I was in this Hall on January 6, 2021, and was among those whisked away to an undisclosed location. My staff huddled behind barricaded doors that were badly damaged by the mob that was described by some of my Republican colleagues as ``patriots'' on a tour of the Capitol.
Our valiant United States Capitol Police and first responders did everything they could to keep us out of harm's way. Some were beaten, strangled, and tased. This building, the people's House, was trashed, damaged, and subjected to despicable acts.
Members of Congress and their staffs feared for their lives. Some of the insurrectionists waived Confederate battle flags and exhibited Nazi symbols, and some brave American citizens died. A Republican Senator, Ron Johnson, said that by and large it was a peaceful protest.
Now, Mr. Speaker, this was not a peaceful protest. It was unadulterated violence.
The President of the United States and all Members of Congress take an oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. That oath is a recognition of the fact that there will be times throughout history when we must deal with the enemy from within.
On the second day of his Presidency, President Trump granted blanket pardons and commutations to nearly 1,600 of the rioters who stormed this Capitol on January 6, 2021. The President decided that these perpetrators should be pardoned and not pay for their crimes.
By pardoning these individuals, this President has made a mockery of the pardon process and smeared the oath he took to uphold the Constitution. These actions demonstrate a blatant disregard for our democratic principles and the sanctity of the vote.
The great John Lewis once shared his great fear that ``one day we may wake up and our democracy is gone.'' John and I often spoke of the delicacy of our democracy and that its future was far from guaranteed.
On January 6, 2021, we came face-to-face with the reality of this fragility, but our democracy also prevailed. We were not deterred from doing our constitutional duty and certifying the legitimate results of the 2020 Presidential election.
Even during this unrelenting campaign to weaken our laws and impede
Earlier today, the leader of our caucus, Hakeem Jeffries, held a special hearing to shed further light on the ongoing threats to free and fair elections and the threats to public safety posed by some of the violent criminals President Trump has let out of prison.
The threat to our democracy that we witnessed 5 years ago has not lessened, and our obligations to be vigilant in its defense and steadfast in our pursuit of a more perfect Union is as important as ever.
The Constitution that binds this country together is a sacred document that has guided our pursuit of perfection for nearly 250 years. We came close to derailing that pursuit on January 6, 2021.
If we refuse to acknowledge the facts and give due deference to the violence that took place 5 years ago, we run the risk of abdicating our responsibility to the American people to safeguard our Nation's core principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The insurrection of January 6 could very well be the worst domestic attack on our government since the Civil War, which ended in 1865.
That insurrection incented much of my recently released third book titled: ``The First Eight,'' which chronicles the trials and tribulations of the eight African Americans who served in Congress from my home State of South Carolina before me.
The book also highlights the social and political events that occurred in the aftermath of the Civil War and calls attention to the violence and lawlessness that occurred during their service and took our great Nation into a dark place that lasted for nearly a century.
There are 95 years between number eight in their group and yours truly, number nine. The book is a cautionary tale that reminds us of the warning of the Spanish philosopher George Santayana that ``Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.''
I fear that the danger John Lewis fretted about is facing us today. The aftermath of January 6, 2021, continues to test our ability to protect our freedom and willingness to continue our trek toward a more perfect Union.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).
Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding. He and I have known each other for some 60 years. We have served in this body for a very long time.
I can remember two events. One was on September 11, 2001, and we were, as the gentleman observed, attacked by an enemy from without. That was horrific. America lost thousands of lives that day. We stood on the steps of the United States Senate that evening and sang ``God Bless America.''
On January 6, I was sitting where the gentleman from South Carolina now stands. I saw an officer, a detail officer from the Capitol Police, come in and take Speaker Pelosi from the rostrum. Then, the Capitol Policeman assigned to my detail, as we call it, came up to me, took me by the arm, and said: We have to get out of here.
I got to that door. We went through that door, and I said to him: What has happened?
The stunning words of his reply were: The Capitol has been breached.
Mr. Speaker, I observed, and I don't know whether the cameras are panning this House, but the other side of the aisle is empty, failing to recognize one of the most grievous, criminal, treasonous events that has happened during the 44-plus years that I have been in this House.
It is as if it were not a historic event, where every Member of this House, 435 of us, ought to be rising today and saying that, America, we will not survive that kind of conduct; that is not America; and urging every one of our constituents, as I am going to quote George Washington in just a minute, to honor democracy in victory and in defeat.
Al Gore lost a Presidential election 5-4. When the Supreme Court said that the election was over, by a vote of 5-4, Al Gore did what real patriots do. He said that the Court has declared the election ended, and because of his love of America and democracy, and because that is how our system works, as a nation of laws, not of men and women.
Mr. Speaker, my favorite painting in the Capitol hangs in the rotunda. It was painted by John Trumbull. It depicts George Washington in the Maryland State Senate Chamber as he resigns his commission as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army at the end of the Revolutionary War.
That painting, Mr. Speaker, is a testament to a man who so eagerly relinquished his power and who only reluctantly reclaimed it when the American people called him to serve as their first President.
It is a symbol of the peaceful transition of power upon which our democracy depends.
Mr. Speaker, 5 years ago today, that painting towered over the swarm of insurrectionists Donald Trump sent to this Capitol. That is why he was deemed to be, as the whip said, the most culpable of the figures involved in this insurrection.
What did he say? He told the mob to ``stop the steal'' and to ``fight like hell.'' Then, he deployed them to the Capitol of the United States of America, the beacon of democracy, freedom, and liberty for all the world, and the Capitol was breached.
There, of course, was no steal, and the courts said so in court after court after court after court. However, unlike Al Gore, President Trump did not honor the courts. Rather, he deployed an army to come to the Capitol, breach it, and stop democratic proceedings.
The army he deployed maimed some 140 of our brave U.S. Capitol Police officers, several of whom lost their lives. They paraded Confederate and Nazi symbols through these Halls, as the whip observed as well. They erected gallows. They erected gallows on the Capitol lawn to hang the Republican Vice President of the United States, and so stated.
Unlike the past few months, the National Guard was nowhere to be found. Donald Trump had every opportunity to restore order. The Republican leader of this House, Mr. McCarthy, called the White House and said: Mr. President, you need to stop this violence.
Nothing happened. Instead, the President played the figurative fiddle as the Capitol was sieged and our Constitution was challenged.
The same man responsible for the violence that day is now trying to distort it and erase it. Perhaps, Mr. Speaker, that is why there is no other Republican on the floor, to try to forget what happened, erase it from the minds of Americans, and erase it from the history books. It was just a group of tourists taking an amble through the Capitol.
Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States inexplicably has described January 6 as ``a day of love.'' Mr. Speaker, I call it what it was: a day of violence, sedition, and treason.
Trump has called those who stormed the Capitol ``unbelievable patriots.'' Mr. Speaker, 435 of us ought to be on this floor saying: No, sir. It was unbelievable violence and sedition.
I call those unbelievable patriots what they are: criminals convicted of such, insurrectionists, cop killers, cop beaters, and democracy destroyers.
In one of the first actions in his second term--the whip has mentioned this, and others will mention it. I use the word ``inexplicable.'' In his first days in office, some 1,600 insurrectionists who stormed this Capitol, who breached this Capitol, and who tried to stop democracy from working were pardoned by the President of the United States, Mr. Donald J. Trump.
David Dempsey was sentenced to 20 years. He viciously assaulted and injured police officers defending the lower west terrace, at the lower west terrace tunnel, using weapons made from broken furniture, pepper spray, and flagpoles.
Daniel Joseph Rodriguez was sentenced to 12\1/2\ years after being found guilty. He was filmed deploying fire extinguishers and dragging Metropolitan
The chief of the Capitol Police, when asked about those pardons, said that it was deeply troubling to the Capitol Police, as well it should be.
Patrick McCaughey, sentenced to 7\1/2\ years, used a stolen riot shield to pin Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges to a metal door frame while another assailant beat Hodges in the face with a stolen baton. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden described McCaughey as the poster child of all that was dangerous and appalling about January 6.
Peter Francis Stager, sentenced to 4 years and 4 months, wielded a flagpole and repeatedly struck a defenseless officer who was lying face down.
I would ask any member of the President's party or our party to come to this floor and defend pardoning somebody who perpetrated a crime on a police officer.
Stewart Rhodes, sentenced to 18 years, said this: ``Patriots,'' using Donald Trump's word for them, ``it was a long day but a day when patriots began to stand. Stand now or kneel forever. Honor your oaths. Remember your legacy.'' That is what he said.
It is pride in assaulting the officers, pride in assaulting democracy, pride in driving the Congress, thankfully for just hours, out of this Capitol so they could not proceed in doing their constitutional duty.
That pardon list included 600 who were charged with assaulting or obstructing law enforcement. Mr. Speaker, so much for supporting the thin blue line, so much for supporting the brave men and women of law enforcement.
Mr. Speaker, we cannot afford to forget January 6. We cannot afford to be absent, Mr. Speaker, to take a walk, to turn our backs on what happened on January 6. To do so is to risk its repeated actions.
It did not end when a bipartisan majority in this House impeached Trump the following week, and it still has not ended.
Mr. Speaker, I ask this House now, as I did on January 6, standing where the gentleman from South Carolina is standing now: Do we have the courage to stand up to a President who violates our Constitution, our laws, and our norms?
Will enough of my colleagues across the aisle find that courage? Liz Cheney found that courage. Liz Cheney--the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, Liz Cheney, the daughter of Vice President Cheney--found that courage to recognize that day for the tragedy it was. I pray others will do the same.
General Washington, whom I mentioned earlier, would do the same. He would tell them what he told his own officers when he learned they were conspiring to overthrow the Continental Congress just a few months before he resigned his commission.
He said this: Express your utmost horror and detestation of the man who wishes, under any specious pretenses, to overturn the liberties of our country and who wickedly attempts to open the floodgates of civil discord and deluge our rising Nation in blood.
That is what happened on January 6. On January 6, we saw the floodgates of insurrection open. If we forget that, if we gloss over that fact of history, if we ignore it, if we diminish its venality or glorify the actions of the mob as Trump does, we risk letting that dream of liberty for which our Founders pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor be swept away.
Mr. Speaker, good evening. I am Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus for the 119th session of Congress, and proud Representative of New York's Ninth Congressional District, located in central and southwest Brooklyn.
I thank my colleagues, Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina and Congressman Steny Hoyer of Maryland, for co-anchoring this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour.
I rise tonight with my colleagues of the Congressional Black Caucus and the House Democratic Caucus to reflect on the solemn anniversary of the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol.
The deadly insurrection of January 6, 2021, was not merely an attack on a building, but a direct and violent assault on Members of Congress, law enforcement, staff, and the very foundations of our democracy.
Today, this evening, we honor the extraordinary bravery of the United States Capitol Police and other law enforcement officers who protected our democracy and ensured that the attempt to overturn the 2020 election results failed.
Five years later, it is not lost on members of our Caucus that efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, through false claims of illegitimate voting, occurred during a year when we saw historic participation of Black voters. That participation resulted in Democratic victories up and down the ballot, as well as the election of the first Black woman Vice President.
Today, we cannot ignore the reality that efforts to disenfranchise Black communities are still ongoing. Soon, in the Louisiana v. Callais case, the Supreme Court will decide whether section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which outlaws racial discrimination in our electoral system, still allows Black and minority voters to challenge racially discriminatory voting maps in court, making clear that the fight to protect our democracy is far from over.
We will never forget the horrors of January 6, nor will we turn a blind eye to the efforts that continue to threaten the promise of equal participation in our democracy and undermine the very foundations on which this Nation and its governance has been built.
The January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and the occupants of the Capitol complex is a day that will live in infamy.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from South Carolina for yielding and the gentleman from Maryland for his co-participation.
Mr. Speaker, 5 years ago at this time, those of us who were in this Chamber could hear the sound of glass being swept up outside of this door.
There were persons in here sweeping the room to see if there were any explosive devices that had been planted after the break-in. Up and down these halls, you could hear murmurs and questions.
For those of us who were here, this is not a joke. This is not Donald Trump's history, and it is not his story. It is what actually happened to our Nation's Capitol. Some of you who were here will remember that day. I had to run out this door from the second floor, find my way down to the tunnels underneath the Capitol to walk for a quarter of a mile to get to an office building where I could be safe, but there were so many others who were not fortunate to be able to do that. They got swept up, as the gentleman from South Carolina said, taken away, whisked away, and stayed in seclusion for hours, sometimes in the same closets almost, breathing the same air.
The fact that that happened, and the fact that there is no one on the other side of the aisle, concerns me because it is almost an acclimation that it is okay. And it is not okay. Five police officers were murdered that day, 150 or so were taken to the hospital, 18 of which had to stay there.
These walls, these doors, these hallowed venues that we have walked in and people have come to and thought of as being a symbol of democracy were shattered unnecessarily.
It is important to find a way to commemorate this day. It is important to remind the rest of the country that what Donald Trump said were visitors visiting the Capitol to go sight-seeing was a lie and that his pardon of over a thousand individuals later is a shameful, shameful act.
I pray to God that nothing like this ever happens again. If it does, I pray to
Mr. Speaker, I first thank both of our Members of Congress who are co-leading this very important Special Order hour.
Five years ago, a violent mob attacked the United States Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. Yet, on the first day of Donald Trump's second term, he pardoned more than 1,500 criminals involved in that insurrection carried out in his name.
This is just one action amid a comprehensive campaign to erase the memory of what happened on that day. It is a slap in the face to law enforcement who selflessly put their lives at risk to defend all of us.
Some of them lost their lives, like Officer Brian Sicknick, a New Jersey native, who tragically died following injuries he sustained that day. Many more are still dealing with trauma. In Brian's honor, I introduced a resolution condemning those blanket pardons.
We must never forget their sacrifice. We cannot let Donald Trump and his allies rewrite the history of one of the darkest moments in the 250-year history of this Nation.
Mr. Speaker, I thank both of our leaders this evening, Representative Hoyer and Representative Clyburn, for making sure that we never forget.
Mr. Speaker, today we pause on the 5-year anniversary of one of the darkest days of our democracy. On January 6, rioters stormed the heart of American Government and sought to overthrow the will of the people with bats and clubs. Now, the individual responsible for promoting such baseless allegations once again occupies the highest office in the land.
I extend profound gratitude for the Capitol Police who stood on the front lines on that terrible day. I thank my colleagues, our appointed officials, and every congressional staff member who worked to ensure that the true will of the American people was done.
I urge every citizen that is watching today to remember that the eyes of the world have not looked away in the 5 years since. We must work to ensure that the American ideals of freedom, justice and liberty endure for generations to come. Never, ever forget.
Mr. Speaker, I thank our distinguished leaders for this opportunity.
Mr. Speaker, 5 years ago, our Nation witnessed an unthinkable assault on American democracy when a violent crowd breached the U.S. Capitol with one purpose: to overturn a lawful election and hold onto power by force.
Law enforcement officers stood between that mob and the Constitution. More than 140 brave officers were injured, and several lost their lives defending this institution. Their courage deserves not just remembrance but that we remain vigilant in upholding the rule of law.
The attack on January 6 was the result of a President who chose division over truth, grievance over governance, and chaos over accountability. That choice continues to threaten our democracy today, as Donald Trump practices deliberate deception and escalating extremism.
Democracy is fragile, and it demands our constant defense. It can only survive when we act to protect it each and every day.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my distinguished colleague from South Carolina and certainly my distinguished colleague from Maryland for giving us the opportunity to speak on this issue tonight, the fifth anniversary of that tragic day of the attack on this Capitol.
I want to focus on two men who were here that day. One was Nathan Tate. He was a police officer who had grown up in Prince George's County. He had mixed feelings about what the police do because he had had some bad experiences in his childhood and in his neighborhood, but he decided he could make a difference.
He felt called to public service as a police officer. When he went to work, he joined the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., and was sent to some of the toughest neighborhoods in Washington, where I had actually been a prosecutor many years before.
On that tragic day, he was one of the 140 officers who were attacked and injured. Fortunately, he was not one of the four who died that day. Another one died the next day. Four officers committed suicide in the wake of the trauma that they had experienced that day.
Mr. Tate was attacked and temporarily blinded by bear spray. He hit his head on the scaffold as he was knocked to the ground and lost consciousness temporarily. He was afraid he wouldn't make it home that night to see his six children. He didn't know if he was going to make it.
His attacker was a man named Andrew Taake. Mr. Taake later pled guilty to attacking officers, including Mr. Tate, with bear spray and a metal whip.
You heard a moment ago that our President and some of our Republican colleagues said that this was a tourist event, but I know not many tourists bring bear spray and whips to the Capitol. The man who attacked him was also a fugitive from justice at the time he came here. He had been released on bond from Texas. He was a 32-year-old man, and he was charged with online solicitation of a minor.
Fortunately, it was an undercover officer posing as a 15-year-old girl, but there was an arrest warrant out for his arrest at the time he came here and launched that attack.
He ended up pleading guilty and accepting responsibility in front of the judge, or so he said, because when you plead guilty, the prosecutor reads a statement of what you have done and you have to swear under oath that that statement is true.
He did that, but at the same time, he had been bragging about attacking these officers. Later, he came out and denied responsibility for what he had done. In fact, he said Officer Tate had attacked him.
The judge in that case was appointed by Donald J. Trump. He heard all the evidence, he heard the guilty plea and the evidence that both sides presented, and he sentenced Mr. Taake to 6 years in jail. Donald Trump's pardon wiped that away with the stroke of a pen.
Mr. Tate, formerly Officer Tate, felt so betrayed by what had happened--not just that day, not just by the way some Members of Congress have responded to what happened that day, and not just by the pardon--that he actually left the police department. He didn't feel he could be a police officer again. However, he was still committed to public service that now he is a middle school teacher in Charles County, Maryland, continuing to do outstanding work.
Actually, The Washington Post article that profiled him today showed that he talked about this issue today or this week with the children in his class. He is trying to continue to serve. He is trying to continue to make a difference. He is trying to make a difference for the next generation. He had life-altering scars that he suffered that day. Many of our colleagues had life-altering scars that they suffered that day. Our Nation suffered life-altering scars that day. We need to commit today that it will never happen again.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Clyburn for his leadership.
Mr. Speaker, as one of the Members of the House that was trapped up in that gallery for hours and hours against my will on January 6, 2021, I rise this evening to say that the rioters who created the chaos that day here at the Capitol were un-American. They were violent. They were unlawful.
I rise to pay tribute to the seven officers who died, the 150 that were injured, many of whom were hospitalized and some deal with PTSD until today.
On March 2022, a year following that, this Congress passed a law directing the Architect of the Capitol to place a permanent memorial to honor every one of those officers who had violence perpetrated against them. Mr. Speaker, 5 years after that tragic day, the plaque is here in the Capitol but the Speaker has not allowed it to be placed.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to urge Speaker Johnson to not allow his worship of one man to rewrite the history of that horrible day. Congress must show respect for those who defended democracy, liberty, and Article I of the Constitution of the United States right here in the House of Representatives, defending the vote that occurred in 50 States across this union. We owe them that memorial.
Mr. Speaker, do not let anyone rewrite the history of what happened on January 6, 2021. A mob tried to overturn a free and fair election and deny the American people of our God-given right to choose our own leaders. They attacked police officers with pipes, rocks, and other weapons. It was domestic terrorism. Let's call it what it is.
They did it because President Trump lied to them and repeatedly said that he did not lose the election when he, in fact, did. Democracy only survives when leaders put the will of the people ahead of their own selfish ambition and when the rule of law is enforced. We thank the hundreds of brave police officers who put their lives in harm's way to defend the Capitol and our democracy.
They know what it means to be patriotic Americans and their courage stands in sharp contrast to many of the Republican Members of this Congress who are too cowardly to tell the truth about what really happened on January 6.
We deserve leaders who stand for the Constitution, stand for our democracy, not only when it is convenient for them but always. We must defend American democracy.
Mr. Speaker, we will never forget that 5 years ago on this day at this President's urging, violent insurrectionists stormed the Capitol and attempted to overturn a peaceful transition of power.
I know that the families of the 140 police officers who were criminally assaulted will never forget either, especially those lives who were taken that day and in the days that followed.
Virginians will never forget that day either, including the Virginians who were in the Capitol complex that day and the family of Howie Liebengood, a Capitol Police Officer from Virginia, who took his own life in the aftermath.
Most importantly, the American people will never forget that day or the 1,500 people who were charged with crimes for what they did, but then received a pardon from President Trump in one of his first actions of 2025.
At least 33 of them have been rearrested, charged, or sentenced for other crimes, including plotting the murder of an FBI agent or child sexual assaults. We will not forget, and those who try to gloss over that day or rewrite history will just be on the wrong side of history.
Mr. Speaker, first, I will recognize the CBC and Chairwoman Clarke and Representatives Clyburn and Hoyer for hosting this Special Order hour.
Mr. Speaker, five years ago, our Nation watched in horror as the President of the United States incited a violent attack on this Capitol to overturn an election that he lost.
At least 140 officers were viciously assaulted and injured, beaten with flagpoles and fire extinguishers, sprayed with chemicals and tased, all in defense of our democracy.
In the days and weeks following the attack, we lost five of those police officers, those brave heroes. We mourn their loss.
The Department of Justice convicted more than 1,000 rioters and had hundreds of cases pending. With a stroke of a pen on his first day in office, President Trump pardoned every single one, putting violent offenders back on our streets.
Since their release, what have some of those pardoned rioters done? They have been charged with assaulting police officers, making terrorist threats, and preying on children. That is who this President set free: violent individuals and child predators.
My colleagues on the other side of the aisle ought to recognize the darkness this day represents for our country. The Republican majority must restore checks and balances and finally hold this President accountable before it is too late.
Mr. Speaker, I won't take 3 minutes. This Chamber should be full. I said that earlier because this was not an attack on Democrats. It is not an attack on Republicans. It was an attack on our country, on our democracy, and on our Constitution. That is why every Member of this House ought to be on this floor, urging Americans to do what democracy demands, solving our differences peacefully through elections, through debate, through votes on this floor.
We have as a centralized premise that might does not make right. The people who stormed up Constitution Avenue coming straight from in front of the White House and a speech by the President of the United States have said they were doing what they thought the President wanted them to do. We ask God to bless America. If we do not speak, we ask God to save America.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his co-anchorship of these few minutes that we have spent together here on the floor.
Mr. Speaker, you have heard from many of our distinguished colleagues about the events of January 6, the insurrection that has been misnamed by many of my colleagues. These issues are of great importance to the members of the Congressional Black Caucus. In fact, they are of great importance to our constituents and to all Americans.
When I think about this day, as many of us will be traveling all over the country--in fact, I am going to be in the hometown of Representative Kennedy to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day I think on the 18 of this month--I am thinking tonight about King's letter from the Birmingham City Jail, which many of us remember was written in response to a letter that he had received from eight White clergymen who said to King that they wanted him to leave Birmingham.
They told King that they thought he was a disruptive force, and they thought that if he were to leave the community, things would be better. They told King in their letter to him that they did not want him to get them wrong because they believed in his cause, but they just thought that his timing was wrong.
Mr. Speaker, King, in his answer to them, said that time itself is neutral. The time is never right. Time is never wrong. Time is always what we make it.
He had a concluding thought there that I have been thinking about all day. King said that he was coming to the conclusion that the people of ill will in our society are making a much better use of time than the people of good will.
Mr. Speaker, I want us to think about that. Those people who came to this building on January 6, 2021, did not have good will in their hearts nor on their minds. They were people of ill will, and they made pretty good use of their time. I will close with this.
King said: ``We are going to be made to repent in this generation not just for the vitriolic words and deeds of bad people but for the appalling silence of good people.''
Mr. Speaker, I say to my friends on the other side of the aisle who have
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President.
Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.
The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 8 o'clock and 16 minutes p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until tomorrow, Wednesday, January 7, 2026, at 10 a.m. for morning-hour debate.
