Awarding Four Congressional Gold Medals to United States Capitol Police and Those Who Protected the U.S. Capitol on January 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. McHENRY. I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3325, a bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the U.S. Capitol Police and those who protected the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

I would like to thank the Speaker for bringing this legislation to the floor to honor the officers who work tirelessly to protect us in and out every day, to not just protect this building, but to protect the Members in this building. Not just protect the Members, but to make sure that staff is safe on a daily basis. And the staff, indeed, makes Congress what it is and gives us the capacity that we have to legislate. We want to make sure that staff and Members and our visitors here are protected on a daily basis, and the Capitol Police, indeed, do that.

Madam Speaker, what happened to this institution on January 6 was horrific. This building is a working monument to our Nation's Founding Fathers and our founding principles. It is a testament to the freedoms we hold dear and that we strive for, and we strive to become a more perfect Union on every day that we are here. Not perfectly, but we strive for a more perfect Union.

Madam Speaker, the brave men and women who stood and faced danger on January 6 deserve to be recognized for their actions. Without their courageous work and their dedication, many of us here today could have been seriously injured or worse.

This gold medal will also honor another Capitol Police Officer, William ``Billy'' Evans. Officer Evans, an 18-year veteran of Capitol Police, was killed at his post when a car rammed into the Capitol barricade on Good Friday. Any life lost is a tragedy, especially those of our friends on the police force.

Once this bill is enacted, a Congressional Gold Medal will be displayed at the U.S. Capitol Police headquarters. It will be a recognition of the good work the Capitol Police do on a daily basis. Another will be displayed at the D.C. Metropolitan Police headquarters, and the third will be given to the Smithsonian Institution so everyone who visits D.C. will be reminded of the bravery by our police officers on that very day.

Madam Speaker, I think I speak for all my colleagues when I say thank you, thank you to each and every officer who was here on January 6. Their bravery will not be forgotten.

The U.S. Capitol Police and those who protected us on January 6 deserve this Congressional Gold Medal. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
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Mr. McHENRY. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I think this is a special moment for the House in a very tough year for us to pause and to say thank you to those men and women who stand guard over this institution; not just this building, not just this campus, but the people who work here every day.

It is not Members; it is staff that are here every day. It is the people that make the Capitol work physically. It is the folks who are at the daycare, the folks who are in the press. They are the folks who are frequent visitors here, such that they feel like they work here, too.

It is the Capitol Police that keep us safe not from one another, but safe from the harms that can happen in a very dangerous world. And we want to say thank you to the men and women of the Capitol Police for their dedication, for their bravery, for their training every day.

And we honor you not just in word, but with deed; not just with word and this deed of a Congressional Gold Medal, but our ongoing support. Our ongoing support, such that you can operate every day to the best of your training with the best training and tactics available to police and law enforcement anywhere in the world, the best equipment, the best training resources, but also the freedom to use those things in a way that is commensurate with public safety.

So I want to thank the Capitol Police for their service and their sacrifice in making this institution safe; safe so we can debate important things that need to be debated, to disagree, for us to be able to disagree as a civil society, yet still come together for the important things of being friends and neighbors and lovers of this great country.

Madam Speaker, I encourage a ``yes'' vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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