Democrats intend to find a more prominent location to display a memorial plaque honoring the law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — which Republicans currently have relegated to the basement of the building.
Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, confirmed to POLITICO he plans to facilitate the move when his party retakes the majority in January. And while he is still working out the logistics, the relocation would send a strong message about how Congress remembers a widely traumatic event that remains politically divisive.
The Democratic-controlled Congress passed legislation in 2022 authorizing a plaque to be displayed in the Capitol, in honor of the Capitol Police, D.C. Metropolitan Police and others who “bravely protected and defended this symbol of democracy.” An estimated 250 law enforcement officers were injured that Jan. 6, and five present died in the days that followed, according to a report from the select House committee tasked with investigating the circumstances surrounding the occurrence.
By the time the plaque was ready to be installed, however, Republicans had taken over Congress — and many GOP lawmakers preferred to downplay or ignore the episode implicating President Donald Trump in inciting the riot to protest the results of the 2020 election.
Speaker Mike Johnson told the AP in January that the law authorizing the plaque was “not implementable.” Days later, the Senate voted unanimously on a measure requiring the plaque to be displayed in the Senate.
In March 2026, the plaque was mounted in the basement of the Capitol building’s Senate side in a hallway that looks out over the West Front — where some of the most intense fighting happened on that day. Democrats have continued to insist it be moved so more people can regularly see it.
