WASHINGTON (CN) — More than a dozen hours of Senate debate on calls for a commission to investigate the causes of the January 6 insurrection stretched overnight only to break Friday afternoon with lawmakers unable to muster a filibuster-proof majority.
On its second day of stalled negotiations, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer admonished Republicans who had signaled days before that they’d kill the bill when it came for a Senate vote.
“This is not a Democratic or a Republican obligation, this is an American obligation,” Schumer said. “Our Democracy, our beautiful, more-than-2-century-old Democracy is at more risk because of the lies that have been perpetrated by President Trump and his allies than it has been in a very long time, and this commission is a great antidote to that.”
In addition to the commission on the insurrection, lawmakers debated — to no denouement — a bill that would increase U.S. competition with China. Despite complaints from Republicans that the latter effort had ballooned past the point of recognition, members managed to eke out a deal to resume work on the issue on June 8, after the Memorial Day weekend.
The final vote was 54-35. Notably, Republican Senators Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Bill Cassidy, Ben Sasse, Rob Portman and Lisa Murkowski voted to proceed to considering the legislation.
“There was an attempt by the Republican minority to shunt this vote into the dark of night, but because of today’s Senate time agreement, it was done in broad daylight,” Schumer said. “The American people will see how each Republican Senator voted.”
Debate on both bills opened Thursday with seemingly endless commotion over procedures and amendments. At times, the lawmakers would take to the floor to admonish one another; at others, they offered accolades for their ability to finally achieve bipartisanship on legislation and an open amendment session — which for the past four years has been seldom seen in congressional work.
It was a little before midnight when Senator Ron Johnson broke the lull of the Senate to lament the U.S. ability to police the southwest border. Fellow Republican Senators Dan Sullivan of Alaska and John Kennedy of Louisiana argued that an amendment process hadn’t been designed with inclusivity to all members. There was no resolution on either bill.
The Jan. 6 violence at the Capitol — which led to the deaths of five people and gave 140 Capitol Police officers injuries, including some who lost their sight and even one fingertip — was not enough to break the logjam.
Senator Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat and former presidential hopeful, came to the Senate floor Thursday with an appeal to Republicans.
“We came here to accomplish the ministerial task we are required after a presidential election is concluded to certify the results of the election, the ballots of millions and millions of Americans who voted in the last election,” Bennet said. “That's why we’re here. Unfortunately, we had a president at that time who denied the election actually happened.”
Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who serves as the party’s whip, called it the senators’ responsibility to protect the U.S. Capitol from enemies foreign and domestic. He said generations are counting on lawmakers to recount what happened on Jan. 6, and to do so on a bipartisan basis.
“Surely all of us can appreciate the importance of working together to investigate why, for the first time in history, America was challenged when we were in the process of the peaceful transfer of power,” he said.
He added: “The events of that day are not fodder for political campaigns. If we allow the history of that day to be rewritten by the deniers, then shame on us.”
