. >> i don't have a lot of time here, but i was in congress in the late '90s working for lee hamiltonnk of guys like lee hamilton and the job they did that was nonpartisan to come up to a solution to a great threat and then i think of january 6th and i lament the fact we missed this opportunity. >> give me a second to say, first of all, lee hamilton was my mentor and i succeeded him for a decade at the wilson center. and he sat in my office, the one i just left, to over see the writing of the 9/11 report on a bipartisan basis. that was the proposal so far as i know that susan collins was trying to push through a couple days ago for the 1/6 commission. 1/6 could have been the most catastrophic advance in our country had they succeeded in taking out the house and senate leadership and vice president pence. let's get on with this. let's learn. i was part of the recovery from 9/11. it wasn't perfect. but we had no attacks from foreign groups since. 1/6 was a catastrophic attack from what i see and saw from a domestic terrorist group. and we really have to understand just as we have to und

governor keene and lee hamilton. they did everything together. they issued a report that sold more copies than "harry potter." i nominated it for a national book award, and it laid out what happened so clearly from their joint investigations. and more importantly, it told us what to do about it. they had a series of recommendations to make this country safer. this body worked together and enacted most of them. and it did make this country safer. in fact, the law enforcement in my city, i get periodic reports on tips to hurt us and how reforms -- the programs we put in place, how they're helping us making us stronger and protecting us better. we need this january 6 commission for the sake of america. let's stop fighting long enough to work together to help our country understand what happened. why did it take four hours for the national guard to respond? in new york, they would have been there in 10 minutes. why -- why didn't you respond to all of the news reports about what was happening? we need answers. let's come together and work together and

the two co-chairs were lee hamilton who was a mentor and friend of mine and actually the president of the wilson center before i succeeded him in 2011 and tom kane, a well respected governor of new jersey. it functioned flawlessly. it did a huge investigation. it came up with a series of findings and recommendations, one of which was to all author the director of national intelligence, which i worked on in the 2004 with a bipartisan group that was then enacted. the point was we reformed the intelligence community after two fai failures, one, 9/11, and the second, iraq w.d. we did it based on the recommendations of a bipartisan commission. that's the kind of thing we need right now. i've been in a group calling for this. i understand the problem solver caucus which is getting a lot of traction has come out and endorsed this, which is going to be much harder to retain republican support including the ranking member on the home hand security commission. he and bennie thompson introduced this. and i think it's going to be hard for katco to walk back. >> what does it tell you about kevin m

governor keene and lee hamilton. they did everything together. they issued a report that sold more copies than "harry potter." i nominated it for a national book award, and it laid out what happened so clearly from their joint investigations. and more importantly, it told us what to do about it. they had a series of recommendations to make this country safer. this body worked together and enacted most of them. and it did make this country safer. in fact, the law enforcement in my city, i get periodic reports on tips to hurt us and how reforms -- the programs we put in place, how they're helping us making us stronger and protecting us better. we need this january 6 commission for the sake of america. let's stop fighting long enough to work together to help our country understand what happened. why did it take four hours for the national guard to respond? in new york, they would have been there in 10 minutes. why -- why didn't you respond to all of the news reports about what was happening? we need answers. let's come together and work together and

i come from indiana and have become friends with lee hamilton, for whom i have great respect. one day we were discussing afghanistan and his view on the matter in the end after discussing strategy and other national security implications were, in the end, everyone has a different threshold. my threshold when it comes to authorization and use of military force is whether you would send your own son or daughter into a particular conflict zone. it is the national interest about important? frankly, we are avoiding that decision on a consistent basis and congress. i think we have a moral imperative to act so that each of us can individually make those decisions and be held accountable by our constituents for the wisdom or lack of wisdom of our decisions. i can't think of a more appropriate time with our closest ally in the world, israel, under assault right now. they are essentially in the middle of a war right now. our country is consistently has stood and will stand with the people of israel but we have an opportunity here to ensure that when we go to work, we do it right and i t

i mean, we had in tom kane and lee hamilton two politicians who were also -- caine was a historian andert. both were committed to history. they were committed to getting facts, and their commitment infused what we did. we were supported by the most partisan people in washington and yet we put that partisanship aside to get to the truth. i don't know that that's possible here in the environment that you've just described t highly politicized environment. i would also say there is no way to do a credible investigation by december. i mean you'd be lucky to get the staff up and running by december, let alone doing all of the work that needs to be done here. so if you want to have something serious, it will run into the 2022 election. by its nature, you could have the report come after the election, but the current proposal is not, if my view, workable. >> i think it's a shame. i think it's very clear just like america deserved the 9/11 commission and looking at all of the lessons learned, they die serve a commission when it comes to january 6th. and i think there's a lot of agreement broad

chairman, lee hamilton, former member of congress. they were the co-chairs of the 9/11 commission.rest of bipartisanship, we revealed many points that we thought would be important and were not necessarily narrowing 9/11 but narrowing many commissions since 9/11, giving the president appointments. the republicans didn't like that, so we have five and five, what they wanted. we had subpoena power in the majority. they didn't like that, so we have bipartisanship in terms of the subpoena. you have to have bipartisanship. we had findings in the legislation that were very important. we took a big chunk out. they still wanted more out. even the testimony of the director of the fbi earlier before january 6, and we took that out. we wouldn't budge on the purpose, to expect what happened on january 6. my distinguished chairman will speak to that, and it is my honor to yield to the person responsible for this bipartisan agreement, the chairman of the homeland security committee, benny thompson. mr. chairman? >> that was house speaker nancy pelosi talking about the proposal for the january 6

become fairly close professional friends with the chairman of the house or in affairs committee lee hamilton for whom i havegreat respect . one day we were discussing afghanistan and his view on the matter in the end after discussing a lot of strategy and other national security implications were tied, in the end my threshold and everyone has a different threshold but my threshold when it comes to the authorization of military force is whether or not you would send your own son or daughter into a particular conflict zone. >> .. but a moral imperative to act so s that each of us can individually make those decisions and be held accountable by our constituents for the wisdom or unwisdom of our decisions. i would also note that i can think of no more appropriate time with arguably our closest ally in the world the country of israel under assault right now. they are essentially in the middle of a war right now. our country is consistently stood with and will stand with the people of israel but we have an opportunity here to make sure that when we go to war we do it right and i thank you for the

led by lee hamilton, former congressman from indiana. they were great people on the commission, wonderful people, including people like john layman, secretary of the navy. they worked for months and prepared i think 42 -- adopted unanimously 42 actions by the congress and the president. we adopted almost all of them almost unanimously and enacted them. what we need is a similar approach with respect to what happened at the capitol, another attack on our country, and we need to know the truth. i think it was thomas jefferson if the people know the truth they won't make a mistake. we need to know the truth. we find out what worked. the 9/11 commission worked. i think it is a good idea and we should do it. >> 20 years after 9/11, it is not that we all agree on what should have been done or what came of it and wars and the patriot act, but there wasn't -- there wasn't this partisan divide over what the commission did to get its information. it was largely lauded. there were critics but it was largely lauded. this is just the starting point.

fairly close professional friends with the former chairman of the house foreign affairs committee, lee hamilton, someone for who i have great respect. and one day we were discussing afghanistan, and his view in the matter in the end, after discussing a lot of strategy and other national security implications, you know, todd, in the end, my threshold -- and everyone has a sort of different threshold -- my threshold when it comes to the authorization of using military voices, whether or not you would send your own son or daughter into a particular conflict zone is the national interest that important? and we are being -- frankly, we're avoiding that decision on a consistent basis in congress. so i think we have a real moral imperative, not just a legal imperative, but a moral imperative to act. so that each of us can individually make those decisions and be held accountable by our constituents in the end for the wisdom or and wisdom of our decisions. and also note that i can think of no more appropriate time with our arguably our closest ally in the world, the country of israel, under assault rig

the senate sergeant at arms statement, a letter to the 9/11 commission chairs thomas kean and lee hamilton, a letter from former national security military and elected officials, as well as a list prepared by the nonpartisan congressional research service outlining the many times that the full capitol police board has testified at has to congressional hearings. it actually is nota correct that they have not appeared as a as a group before the congress since 1945. in fact, they have appeared numerous times as a group and many more times individually. so that will gor into the recor. we will also, members have additional questions, i'm sorry that the time he did not permit an additional round ofd. questions, but the record is open for members of additional questions, and we would ask all of the witnesses to respond to those questions in writing, and hearing will be held open for those responses. i want to thank each one of you. certainly the architect and general walker are employed by the house but everyone else is a volunteer. you are just here to help us out, and we appreciate that your s

in the letter the co-chairs of the 9/11 commission, governor tom mccain, representative lee hamilton, state, and i quote, a full accounting of the events of january 6 and the identification of measures to strengthen the congress can help our country heal, end quote. at this point i yield -- the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. mcgovern: i yield three minutes to the gentleman from mississippi, the distinguished chairman of the committee on homeland security, mr. thompson. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from mississippi, distinguished chairman, is recognized for three minutes. mr. thompson: thank you very much, madam chair. madam chair, i rise in support of h.res. 409, which allows for debate on h.r. 3233, the national commission to investigate the january 6 attack on the united states capitol complex act. after months of negotiations last week, i was pleased to introduce this measure with the gentleman from new york, mr. katko. back to 2007, i was proud to be the lead sponsor of legislation to implement the unfulfilled recommendations of the 9/11 commissi