Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer filed a cloture motion for the bill to form an independent commission to investigate the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol, meaning that the Senate must vote on forming the commission by Friday, MSNBC reports.
Sixty Senators must vote for cloture to proceed to a floor vote to establish the January 6th commission. To date, all fifty Democrats in the Senate have voiced support for the commission, while only Republican Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski has voiced support for an independent commission.
Six days ago, the House voted in a bipartisan way to establish the commission, with 35 Republicans joining all Democrats to pass the bill. The format of the commission–with equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans–was agreed to by Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson and New York Republican John Katko, their respective party’s ranking members of the House Homeland Security Committee.
While seven Republicans voted to impeach Donald Trump for inciting the January 6th insurrection, only Murkowski has fully supported the investigation, meaning the likelihood that Schumer can get the 60 votes required for cloture highly unlikely.
Even if the independent commission is voted down by the minority, House and Senate Democrats can set up committee investigations in each chamber to pursue the information about the origins of the attack.