House GOP is trying to weaken Capitol security and build Trump's wall instead

Congress is set to vote this week on a bill that would dramatically increase security funding for the Capitol complex in response to the rioting there by supporters of Donald Trump on Jan. 6.

The $1.9 billion bill includes funding to do everything from better training and protecting Capitol Police officers, to funding mental health support for officers still suffering trauma from the attack, to reimbursing the District of Columbia for the costs it incurred in responding to the insurrection, according to Roll Call.

Roll Call reported that it’s unclear whether Republican lawmakers in both the House and Senate, many of whom told the very lies that helped lead to the deadly attack on the Capitol, support the proposed funding increases.

What’s more, a handful of House Republicans are trying to weaken the bill.

For example, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) filed an amendment to take $350 million meant to bolster the emergency response at the Capitol and instead use it to build Trump’s border wall.

An amendment introduced GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Ted Budd (R-NC) would prohibit security funding from going toward maintaining the magnetometers outside of the House chamber.

“None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to procure, install, operate, or maintain metal detectors (including magnetometers and hand held metal detectors) to screen Members of Congress entering the Hall of the House,” the amendment reads.

Boebert has been a major opponent of the use of metal detectors at points of access to the House floor, the use of which was instituted after the insurrection amid reports that GOP lawmakers might be trying to illegally bring guns into the chamber.

The amendments are the latest effort by Republicans to muddy the messaging around the insurrection.

Last week, some GOP lawmakers sought to whitewash the insurrection, in which a pro-Trump mob broke into the Capitol in an effort to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory.

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) described it as a “normal tourist visit.” Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) described the attack as a “beautiful day of peaceful, faith-filled support for free elections.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday came out in opposition to a bipartisan commission to investigate the insurrection, saying that he wanted it to look into events that had nothing to do with the attack in Washington.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said that some GOP lawmakers may actually be implicated in the findings of a such a commission.

“I think that that kind of intense, narrow focus threatens people in my party who may have been playing a role they should not have been playing,” Cheney said during an interview with NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie on May 13.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said a vote is scheduled for Thursday on the funding for Capitol security.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.