The House has voted to create a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, overcoming Republican opposition.
The measure to create the committee passed the chamber 222-190 with just two Republicans voting in favor of it.
The committee will be compromised of 13 members, with eight Democrats and five Republicans, and will have subpoena power to probe “the facts, circumstances and causes relating to the Jan. 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack” when supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol.
In a letter to House lawmakers on Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wrote, “We have the duty, to the Constitution and the country, to find the truth of the Jan. 6 insurrection and to ensure that such an assault on our democracy cannot happen again.”
“It is clear that Jan. 6 was not simply an attack on a building, but an attack on our very democracy,” she added.
Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) were the only two Republicans to vote for the measure.
Wednesday’s vote comes after Senate Republicans blocked legislation to create a bipartisan commission to investigate the violence last month, as IJR reported.
Last month, when the House passed legislation to create a bipartisan commission, 35 Republicans voted in favor of the move.
Pelosi announced last week the House would vote to create a select committee, as IJR reported.
“This morning, with great solemnity and sadness, I am announcing that the House will be establishing a select committee on the January 6 insurrection,” she said during a press conference on Thursday. “January 6 was one of the darkest days in our nation’s history … It is imperative that we establish the truth of that day and ensure that an attack of that kind cannot happen and that we root out the causes of it all.”
