Duckworth Joins Warnock in Calling on Congress to Reimburse National Guard & U.S. Capitol Police after January 6th Insurrection

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] — In a letter to Senate leadership and the leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee, U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) joined U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) to urge their colleagues to allocate necessary supplemental funds to the National Guard and U.S. Capitol Police to cover the unanticipated costs associated with responding to the January 6th insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. The lawmakers also requested their colleagues to improve problems in the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program and include funding to protect the Afghan interpreters who assisted U.S. Armed Forces during the United States’ twenty-year military engagement in the country and provide additional needed funding to the Department of Defense (DoD) due to ongoing COVID-19 mission without reprogramming funds from other necessary DoD projects.

“Following the January 6th insurrection, National Guard units from around the country deployed to Washington, D.C., to protect our democratic institutions and ensure a peaceful transition of power. This mission, historic and important, cost an estimated $521 million and used funds appropriated for Federal training and missions…The Senate has an obligation to ensure that both the National Guard and USCP have the resources and support they need to fulfill their missions,” wrote the Senators regarding the National Guard and U.S. Capitol Police.

With regards to improving the SIV program, the Senators continued: “The United States has a moral duty to protect those Afghans and their families who protects American forces as interpreters, aided the U.S. mission, and put their lives at risk. We support expanding the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program and making the process more efficient and effective… We cannot abandon those who will inevitably face violence in the absence of U.S. military presence because of their support to our efforts.”

In the wake of the January 6th insurrection, members of both the National Guard and U.S. Capitol Police worked overtime to secure the nation’s democratic institutions, pushing both organizations toward challenging funding cliffs if additional funding isn’t secured by August 1, 2021. Any delay in additional funding will hamper the military’s readiness and compromise the security of the U.S. Capitol. In their letter, the lawmakers also emphasized that this funding must be secured through a supplemental appropriations process, not through Department of Defense reprogramming, which would not adequately fund the vital needs of the National Guard and the USCP and result is unacceptable delays in critical projects.

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