A replica plaque commemorating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot stands outside the office of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.Photo: (Julia Demaree Nikhinson | AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
More than three years after Congress approved a plaque honoring law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol during the January 6, 2021 attack, the memorial has yet to be installed — leaving a conspicuous absence inside one of the nation’s most historic buildings.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has not formally unveiled the plaque, and the Architect of the Capitol says it cannot comment while federal litigation over the issue is ongoing. At the same time, the Department of Justice under the Trump administration is seeking to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Capitol Police officers demanding the plaque be displayed as required by law.
In response to the delay, roughly 100 members of Congress — mostly Democrats — have taken matters into their own hands. Over recent months, they’ve posted replica versions of the plaque outside their office doors, transforming hallways throughout the Capitol complex into informal memorials.
The replicas mirror the language of the official plaque, which was intended to be permanently installed near the Capitol’s west front — the site of some of the most violent clashes between rioters and police. Lawmakers who’ve displayed the replicas say the absence of an official marker risks allowing the events of January 6 to fade from public memory.
Visitors can now walk through the Capitol without encountering any formal acknowledgment of the attack, a moment when a mob seeking to overturn the 2020 election breached the building. Critics argue that the lack of a visible memorial creates space for competing narratives — and even revisionist versions of history — to take root.
While congressional leaders across both parties initially condemned the violence, those statements have largely disappeared from public discourse. Former characterizations of the attack as an insurrection have been replaced by rhetoric downplaying its severity, even as key political figures involved in contesting the 2020 election now hold powerful leadership roles.
Historians say the debate over memorialization reflects a larger question: whether January 6 will be remembered as a defining threat to American democracy or dismissed as an aberration.
The violence itself left lasting scars. At least five people died in connection with the riot and its aftermath, more than 140 officers were injured, and several later died by suicide. Roughly 1,500 people were charged in what became one of the largest federal prosecutions in U.S. history. When President Trump returned to office in January 2025, he pardoned all those charged.
Unlike permanent memorials for events such as the September 11 attacks or the Oklahoma City bombing, the absence of a Jan. 6 marker has left what some lawmakers describe as both a physical and symbolic void.
Congress authorized the plaque in March 2022 as part of a government funding bill, directing that it be installed within a year and list the names of officers who responded to the attack. That deadline passed without action.
Earlier this year, Capitol Police officers Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges filed suit, arguing that the failure to install the plaque undermines the recognition owed to officers who defended the Capitol. The Justice Department has countered that Congress has already acknowledged law enforcement’s service and that installing the plaque would not resolve the harms cited by the officers, including ongoing threats.
The DOJ has also noted that the plaque would need to include thousands of names — a logistical challenge that has been cited as part of the delay.
As the legal fight continues, Democratic lawmakers say their makeshift memorials serve an essential purpose: ensuring that future generations understand how close the country came to losing its democratic institutions.
With no bipartisan ceremonies planned for the anniversary this year, Democrats are holding their own hearing on threats to free and fair elections, while House Republicans are launching a separate committee to reexamine the events of January 6.
For now, instead of one official plaque, the Capitol has dozens of replicas — a fragmented reminder of an unresolved reckoning over how the nation remembers that day.
SOURCE: WHSV3