The Senate has opted out so the House must step up

Orange County Register June 2, 2021

Re “Review of Capitol riot is blocked by the GOP” (May 29): 

Now that the Senate has blocked the creation of a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, I hope Speaker Nancy Pelosi will convene a similar commission in the House.  In order to remove any suspicion of partisan wrong-doing, membership must include an equal number of Republicans and Democrats.

In case you are wondering, Congress has established commissions to study many critical events in our lifetime.  Chief among those were the Kennedy assassination in Dallas, the events leading up to Iran-Contra (i.e., arms-for-hostages), Benghazi and 9/11.  As for the latter, the commission conducted 1,000 interviews, reviewed millions of classified and unclassified documents, and released a 567-page report that sold more than a million copies. 

Given that the Justice Department already has brought charges against more than 450 people involved in the Jan. 6 riot, I believe the public deserves to know who, what and why this tragic event took place (if for no other reason than preventing anything else like it ever happening again).

Now that the Senate has opted out, the only way to answer these 3 questions is to create a bipartisan, independent commission in the House.  

-DF