Sen. Thom Tillis finds a way to honor Jan. 6 officers without the House
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Sen. Tillis and Sen. Merkley secured unanimous Senate consent to display Jan. 6 plaque.
- Architect of the Capitol will place the plaque on the Senate side for public view.
- House speakers withheld the plaque, citing missing officer names.
Good morning! It’s Danielle Battaglia with the latest edition of Under the Dome focused on the Trump administration.
Somewhere in the recesses of my brain is the trauma of feeling the ground shake beneath me and seeing an orange glow travel up the wall of my house one of the first times my parents let me stay by myself, home sick from school. It was Sept. 11, 2001, and I lived just three miles, as the crow flies, from the Pentagon.
Growing up in the greater Washington, D.C., area, you have an innate feeling that while you’re probably standing in one of the world’s greatest targets, you’re also in one of the world’s safest locations.
So when Jan. 6, 2021, happened many Washingtonians were taken back to that feeling from 9/11. I didn’t take my eyes off the television screen on either day.
But I wasn’t there on Jan. 6. I didn’t experience that trauma. It would be another 11 months before I would move back from North Carolina to Washington.
In the five years since Jan. 6, the riot at the Capitol has come up often. And the raw emotion from people who were there is still so evident on the days that it does.
Which brings me to this week.
Both House speakers Kevin McCarthy and Mike Johnson have refused to hang a plaque, commissioned by Congress, to honor the law enforcement officers who protected the lawmakers who were working to certify the election of former President Joe Biden. Some of those officers were injured, and some died in connection with the attack.
For the first time, Tuesday, on the five-year anniversary, Johnson gave a reason why he hasn’t had the plaque installed.
He said when lawmakers wrote the law, they said that the name of every officer who served that day was supposed to be written on the plaque. The one that was created only lists their agencies.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from Huntersville, called for new language to ensure that the plaque would be hung.
“We saw the Capitol police spirit us away from this chamber, over to the Hart building and secure us literally without any risk of any of us being harmed,” Tillis said on the Senate floor Thursday. “Having said that, we walked by several Capitol police officers who were injured. They had been hit, they had been crushed in doors ... and yet, they did their job that day.”
He and Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, teamed up to ensure the plaque would be hung.
Merkley told his colleagues it shocked him to learn that the plaque had been stashed away out of sight. He said he was also shocked by a website the White House published this past week that whitewashed what happened at the U.S. Capitol, calling it a “peaceful protest.”
“It’s so important we recognize those who defended our democratic republic on that day,” Merkley said. “It’s so important that people know that we came back as senators and House members and finished our work that day for the peaceful transfer of power, which is essential to the future of our democratic republic.”
The Senate agreed, with no recorded vote but with no objections, that until Congress can come to an agreement over the plaque, the Architect of the Capitol will hang it in a prominent spot on the Senate side of the building so members of the public can see it.
It’s not immediately clear when the plaque will be hung.
Other things we worked on:
- What should parents do about the CDC’s new vaccine recs? We asked NC experts
- Will insurance still cover vaccine costs in NC with CDC changes? What to know
- Tillis lashes out at Stephen Miller over Greenland claim, calling it ‘stupid’
- North Carolina’s Senate candidates react to capture of Venezuelan leader
- NC’s Sen. Ted Budd wants answers on Venezuela plan, even as he supports attack
- Feds threaten to withhold NC highway funding over immigrant driver’s licenses
- Hundreds protest in Durham in support of Minneapolis woman killed by ICE agent
- As EPA tries to loosen PFAS rules, NC regulators inch toward statewide protections
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading and supporting local journalism.
Be kind to each other.
If you have any feedback or tips for this edition of the newsletter, feel free to reach out to me directly at dbattaglia@mcclatchydc.com.
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This story was originally published January 12, 2026 at 5:00 AM.