The Senate passed a bill Tuesday awarding police officers at the Capitol on Jan. 6 Congressional Gold Medals for protecting the building against those who stormed it that day.
The bill passed via unanimous consent after no senators objected. It sailed through the House on a 405-21 vote in June, with only Republicans voting against it.
The bill gives one gold medal each to the Capitol Police, Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and other officers who helped protect the Capitol from the attackers. The medals, along with another for the architect of the Capitol, would be displayed at the Smithsonian.
“The gold medal is about setting the record straight,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote. “We have a moral obligation to never forget what our first responders faced down.”
Schumer also lambasted the House Republicans who voted against awarding police gold medals in March. “For the life of me, I don’t know how they sleep at night,” he said. (RELATED: Army Corps Congratulates Capitol Officer After ‘Singlehandedly Holding Back Rioters From Entering The Senate Chamber’)
Pro-Trump rioters clash with police and security forces as people try to storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Kaylee Greenlee/Daily Caller News Foundation)
The House in March also voted to award just the Capitol Police gold medals on a 413-12 vote before the bill was amended to include all officers. Only Republicans voted against the original legislation as well.
The Senate vote comes a day after MPD confirmed that two more officers at the Capitol on Jan. 6 had committed suicide, becoming the third and fourth officers to do so since the riot, which unfolded as Trump supporters resorted to violence to try and overturn President Joe Biden’s victory over former President Donald Trump.
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