Senate passes bill to award congressional gold medal to Capitol Police

The Senate on Tuesday passed a bill to award congressional gold medals to law enforcement agencies that responded to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.  

The Senate unanimously approved the legislation, which passed the House in March.

The bill provides a congressional gold medal to the U.S. Capitol Police, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) of the District Columbia and a third medal to be displayed at the Smithsonian in honor of other law enforcement officials that responded to the crisis.

The Architect of the Capitol would also be given a medal to be displayed in the building.  

“The gold medal is about setting the record straight. … We have a moral obligation to never forget what our first responders faced down,” said Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). 

The Senate previously passed a bill to provide a Congressional Gold Medal to Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman, who has been praised as a hero for leading the mob away from a nearby entrance to the Senate chamber on Jan. 6 as staffers were racing to lock down the chamber.

The Senate’s action comes a day after MPD confirmed that two more law enforcement officers who responded to the Capitol on Jan. 6 had died by suicide. Four officers who responded to the attack on the Capitol, where a mob of pro-Trump supporters breached the building as Congress was formally counting the Electoral College results, have died by suicide.