Susan Collins to support breaking Jan. 6 commission filibuster

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

published 26 May 2021

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) will vote against a filibuster that would block the formation of a commission to examine the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, The Hill and Politico reported Wednesday.

The moderate Republican wants a commission, but isn't sold on the House-passed bill that would create the commission in its current iteration. Still, moving it forward gives her the opportunity to make a couple of potentially key revisions, including having the chair and vice chair of the committee jointly appoint staff to avoid tipping the panel predominantly toward Democrats, as the GOP fears. Her other change involves disbanding the panel 30 days after it submits final report, rather than the 60 set by the House bill.

Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are on board with Collins' changes, Politico notes, and Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) may be next in line, but that still wouldn't get to the 60 votes necessary to prevent a filibuster. Collins, though, sounds somewhat hopeful, telling Politico "most people that I talk to believe that this would improve the bill regardless of whether they're for the commission." Read more at The Hill and Politico.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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