The House just voted to approve legislation to establish an independent and bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol.
The vote came after the top Democrat and Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee struck a deal last week to create the commission, breaking a months-long logjam between House leaders about how to structure the independent panel.
House Homeland Security Chair Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and the panel’s ranking Republican, Rep. John Katko of New York, announced on Friday they had reached an agreement for the panel that would be modeled after the 9/11 Commission.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced they wouldn’t support the commission, siding with Republicans who have tried to downplay efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the attack.
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The commission will have the power to issue subpoenas if they are signed off by both the chair and vice-chair, according to a summary released by the committee.
The deal represented a significant bipartisan breakthrough on a proposal that had been stalled for months since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi first proposed a commission to investigate the insurrection at the Capitol in the days after the deadly attack.
The fate of the commission now rests in the Senate, where supporters of the plan will need at least 10 Republicans in the Senate to join all 50 Democrats in the chamber in order to overcome a 60-vote filibuster and pass the bill.
