Law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol will be the first to testify as hearings begin Tuesday for the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack.
The existence of the committee and its membership is widening the political split between Republicans and Democrats.
Democrats originally proposed an independent commission based on the success of the commission that delivered a widely accepted investigation into the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the U.S.
“The commission was going to be a body with much more clout,” said political scientist Norm Ornstein, a senior fellow emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute.
A group of Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives came up with a plan for an independent commission. There was agreement on many Republican requests. There would be an equal number of Democrats and Republicans on the commission and an end-of-year deadline for the final report. In mid-May, it passed the House 252-175, with 35 Republicans voting for the commission.
