'It's time': Jeffries urges placement of Jan. 6 plaque during police week

Justin Papp, CQ-Roll Call on May 14, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

WASHINGTON — During a week honoring police nationwide, House Democrats called on Republicans to install a memorial closer to home — a long-delayed plaque for officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The plaque was authorized as part of the fiscal 2022 omnibus spending law and was supposed to be placed on the West Front of the Capitol within a year of enactment, which would have been March 15, 2023. But so far, it hasn’t happened.

“791 days have passed and this Republican Congress has refused to comply with the law. It’s time to honor those heroic officers. It’s unconscionable, it’s unpatriotic, it’s unfathomable, it’s unacceptable and it’s un-American, and you need to honor those officers and treat them with the dignity and respect that they deserve,” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said from the House floor Wednesday afternoon, to scattered applause from his Democratic colleagues.

Jeffries noted that it is National Police Week, meant to honor law enforcement and remember fallen officers. He asked for unanimous consent that the House Administration Committee be discharged from further consideration of a concurrent resolution that would direct the architect of the Capitol to install the plaque. Jeffries’ proposal was not considered on procedural grounds.

“The plaque is complete. It’s done. It’s been sitting somewhere in storage in the Capitol, and it’s way past time that we display this for America to see,” Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., said on the floor. Earlier this year, Crow led a letter calling on Speaker Mike Johnson to place the plaque.

Despite Congress blowing past the deadline it set for itself, the plaque has been only occasionally brought up by Democratic leaders. During police week 2024, Jeffries appeared at a press conference with a photograph of the finished plaque and said it was waiting on action from House Republicans.

Johnson, through a spokesperson, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The poster replica first displayed by Jeffries last year bears an image of the west side of the Capitol, with the words: “On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended this symbol of democracy on January 6, 2021. Their heroism will never be forgotten.” Beneath the inscription are the names of law enforcement agencies involved in protecting Congress that day, when supporters of Donald Trump assaulted police officers and flooded the Capitol in an attempt to stop lawmakers from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.

“Everybody wants to pay lip service to the police. Everybody wants to say we honor them,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., from the floor Wednesday. “Well let’s really honor them. Let’s put up a permanent plaque for future generations of Americans to see that these officers risked their lives for the people in this chamber.”

Across the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon, Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., vowed at a Legislative Branch subcommittee hearing with Capitol Police to keep pushing to get the plaque up at the Capitol.

“I have yet to see one good reason why the speaker hasn’t put it up yet,” Murray said.

_____