House Administration Committee to hold hearing after Inspector General report on 1/6 insurrection

The House Administration Committee announced Wednesday it will hold a hearing to address a new report from the Inspector General of the US Capitol Police related to the deadly riot on Capitol Hill, the first public hearing since the Senate blocked legislation last week to form an independent, bipartisan commission designed to probe the event.

The report, which is not available to the public because it contains sensitive law enforcement information, is the fourth such document issued by Inspector General Michael A. Bolton related to the January 6 insurrection. The announcement did not specify the date of the hearing.

In a statement, House Administration chairwoman, Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, promised that despite the commission being blocked, her committee would continue to search for answers as to what went wrong that day.

“Despite Senate Republicans’ shameful filibuster of a compromise, bipartisan bill to establish an independent commission to investigate the deadly insurrection and attack on the Capitol, the American people deserve answers. The Committee on House Administration will move forward on those matters within its jurisdiction to fulfill oversight responsibilities,” Lofgren said.

In a conference call with the Democratic Caucus on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi floated four possible options to move forward on investigating the events of January 6, one of which was allowing the appropriate, existing committees to continue their work.

A spokesman for the Administration Committee said that while Lofgren fully supports the formation of an independent commission, the decision to schedule a hearing had more to do with the information that was revealed in the report, not the Senate blocking the commission’s formation.

According to the statement released by the committee, the report “identified significant deficiencies pertaining to the Department’s Containment and Emergency Response Team and First Responders Unit and made more than 20 recommendations.” The committee statement also revealed that some of what Bolton discovered was so “significant and troubling” that he made department leadership aware of those concerns in an urgent advisory.

Lofgren promised that her committee would take action as a result of what the report and subsequent hearing recommend. “(Bolton’s) latest flash report reveals, again, disturbing inadequacies in the Department leadership’s preparation for, and response to, the January 6 attack,” Lofgren said. “Examining these latest findings and recommendations will assist the Committee as we contemplate reforms.”

This hearing will be the fifth public hearing on the Capitol insurrection by the Administration Committee, the most of any in Congress.

While the report is currently not available to the public, the committee hopes to release the executive summary before the hearing is held.