WaPo: GOP won't install Jan. 6 plaque honoring law enforcement, Democrats say [View all]

[Dennis Donovan]

WaPo - (archived: https://archive.ph/WhmpK ) GOP won’t install Jan. 6 plaque honoring law enforcement, Democrats say

Approved by Congress in 2022, the plaque can’t be installed until House Republican leadership gives the go-ahead.

May 23, 2025 at 6:00 am

By Joe Heim



More than three years after its installation was approved by Congress, a plaque honoring law enforcement personnel for defending the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is instead sitting in a Capitol basement utility room surrounded by tools and maintenance equipment.

The cast bronze memorial to the officers, which declares that “their heroism will never be forgotten,” was required by law to be installed by March 2023 near the west front of the building. That was the scene of some of the most intense battles between police and supporters of President Donald Trump who attacked the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the election of Joe Biden as president.

The legislation authorizing the memorial was part of an omnibus spending package approved by Democrats and 39 Republicans in 2022 and signed into law by Biden. Leadership of the House changed in 2023 when Republicans took control and before the plaque was ready to be installed. The memorial has been in limbo ever since.

Last week, House and Senate Democrats used the backdrop of National Police Week to highlight their ongoing efforts to have the legislation implemented. They say the only thing keeping the plaque from public view is that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and Republican members have not yet instructed the Architect of the Capitol to install it.

At a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing last month, Architect of the Capitol Thomas E. Austin said that modifications on the House side of the Capitol are directed by the office of the speaker and that he had not received instructions to install the plaque.

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