WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday narrowly passed a $1.9 billion emergency spending measure that would boost security for the U.S. Capitol complex and to government agencies that responded to the Jan. 6 attack on the building.
In an effort improve response to a future incident, the bill would allocate $18 million in funding to U.S. Capitol Police to provide body cameras to officers who interact with the general public, to buy riot control equipment and to strengthen intelligence and training.
The bill passed the House 213 to 212, with three Democrats voting “present” and three opposing the bill.
Under the bill, the Architect of the Capitol would receive about $529 million dedicated to installing new cameras around the Capitol and surrounding office buildings, for new screening vestibules and to upgrade accessible windows and doors to these buildings.
The House sergeant-at-arms would receive about $21 million to enhance security and threat assessments for members of Congress, for coordination of security for lawmakers when they travel and for the installation of cameras in members’ district offices back home.
“This bill is not about politics, it’s not about settling scores. It’s about ensuring that every person who comes onto the Capitol grounds is safe and is protected,” Rep. Rose DeLauro, D-Conn., chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, said on the House floor Thursday.
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“The funding is not optional,” said DeLauro, who sponsored the measure. “It’s about protecting the seat of our democracy, and the men and the women of the young people who work here, and serve.”
The legislation would also provide more funding to Capitol Police to help backfill overtime pay for the agency until it can hire, train and deploy more officers, bolster resources for its intelligence division, pay for new mental health counselors and reimburse the cost for equipment and services used in the wake of the attack.
It would also retroactively allocate more than $520 million to the National Guard for the deployment of its troops to protect the Capitol between Jan. 6 and May 23 and would reimburse more than $66 million to the District of Columbia for its response to the riot.
The bill would also reimburse various agencies and government officers for costs associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., a member of the Appropriations Committee, urged her GOP colleagues to vote against the measure because she thinks lawmakers should spend more time making sure that the funding would be used wisely.
This comes a day after the House passed legislation that would establish a bipartisan independent 9/11-style commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack. It faces an uphill climb in the Senate where Democrats would need at least 10 Republicans to vote with them in order for it to pass.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
