Senator Collins signals she's in favor of January 6th bill but demands changes

It wasn’t much of a surprise that days ago Mitt Romney announced he’d be backing the January 6th commission bill in the Senate. The news cycle now is focused on Senate Republicans as the Democrats will need the support of ten of them to get the bill through, filibuster-free.

It was this time last week that the US House of Representatives passed the bill. 35 Republicans joined all Democrats in sending it along to the Senate.

According to The Hill, Republican Susan Collins of Maine will be voting in favor of the bill. She also confirmed she’s advocating on behalf of the bill to her Republican colleagues.

"There are a lot of unanswered questions, and I'm working very hard to secure Republican votes for a commission," she told reporters.

But Senator Collins is pushing for changes. She doesn’t want Democrats to be the only ones hiring staff. To rectify that, Collins is seeking to make it so both the chair and vice chair jointly agree on staff to hire. If not possible, she wants a back-up plan where the chair and vice chair hire their own staff instead.

The bill has a limit in place of requiring their final report to be submitted at the end of 2021. But Collins wants to change the disbandment time of the commission to be 30 days instead of the 60 days limit it’s at right now.

Following Mitt Romney’s lead was Sen. Murkowski of Alaska, who told reporters yesterday she plans to back the bill. It’s a priority for Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer to get this commission bill passed in the Senate before the Memorial Day weekend arrives.