Congress blew the deadline for a plaque honoring Jan. 6 officers by over a year

WASHINGTON — As Congress plans to honor law enforcement for National Police Week in Washington, those who defended the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack are still awaiting a permanent memorial in the building more than a year after the deadline Congress set to place one.

Congress commissioned a plaque to honor officers who responded to the riot that day, to be completed by March 2023, but it has yet to be installed. The bill that authorized the honor required lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the Capitol to approve the process — two Democratic sources and a Republican source said House Republicans are to blame for the hold-up.

Republicans on relevant committees responded to requests for comment on the delay by referring NBC News to the office of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. A spokesman for Johnson said the office “is working with [architect of the Capitol] to get the plaque mounted” but did not provide a date for when the plaque would be installed or share a reason for the delay.

In response to questions about the delay, the architect of the Capitol’s office said it is “working with the Speaker’s office to get the plaque mounted.”

Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is considering pardoning hundreds of Capitol rioters who took part in an attack that injured 140 police officers. Members of the House Republican majority continue to downplay the events of Jan. 6. Johnson, who played a key role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, introduced a Trump-backed bill last week that plays on much of the same misinformation about election security that led to the attack.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., a former member of the House Jan. 6 committee, asked Johnson in