PERSPECTIVE: Capitol siegeA Proposal for a Commission on the Capitol Siege

On 6 January, the U.S. Capitol was assaulted and occupied for the first time since 1814. Five people were killed, including Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who was beaten to death while attempting to repel the siege.

Herb Lin and Amy Zegart write in Lawfare that the insurrectionists were ultimately unable to block the Congressional certification of Joseph Biden as president-elect and Kamala Harris as vice president-elect. However, the outcome could have been mass carnage on the floors of the Capitol. “And it constituted an unprecedented breakdown of the most basic function of American democracy—the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next.

They add:

Republican Reps. Rodney Davis, John Katko), and James Comer have introduced a bill that would establish a national bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack. The bill models the proposed body after the 9/11 Commission, an independent entity established by Congress and charged with understanding what went wrong and what should be done to prevent such attacks in the future. That commission uncovered critical facts, assessed root causes, brought bipartisan focus to an ongoing threat, and galvanized the nation.

We agree that a Jan. 6 Commission is needed. To be effective, however, the commission’s purpose and focus must be laid out with greater specificity than current proposals have offered. Here, we attempt to sketch out the justification for a commission as well as the mandate, major areas of inquiry, and legislative language that we believe are needed to guide this effort.

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Accountability, healing, and national reconciliation are vital to restoring American democracy in the days ahead. These processes take different forms and occur in different forums ranging from criminal prosecution to political remedies and action in the private sector. Regardless of what other measures are taken, however, it is critical for the nation to conduct a systematic, thorough and bipartisan examination of this event to understand how it happened and how to prevent similar violent attacks on democratic processes in the future.

The commission’s mandate should not be limited only to uncovering what happened and making recommendations. It should also be tasked with collecting and preserving information about this unprecedented event for future generations of policymakers, scholars and citizens. The foundation of civics is shared narrative and history.