The Senate Republicans filibustered the bipartisan January 6 Commission bill because: "Anything that gets us rehashing the 2020 election ... is a day lost on being able to draw contrast between us and the Democrats' very left-wing agenda," said Senate Minority Whip John Thune. In other words, it would hurt Republican electoral 2022 prospects. If there was ever evidence of the need for filibuster reform, this is it!
We have never in our history seen anything like the January 6 storming of the Capitol. It was an insurrection orchestrated by a sitting President attempting to use a violent mob of his supporters to stop the constitutionally mandated certification of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss) and John Katko (R-N.Y.) reached bipartisan agreement, in the House, on the creation of a Commission to investigate the causes of the insurrection. While the bill passed the House with only 35 Republican votes, it was an act of sanity; in the increasingly insane political atmosphere of 2021 only six Republicans voted for the bill; it would have taken 60 votes to overcome the filibuster.
The bill, which the Republicans filibustered, would have created a 9/11 type independent commission to study the "facts and causes" of the attack, "as well as the influencing factors that may have provoked the attack on our democracy." The commission would have been made up of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans; only issue subpoenas if both the chair and vice chair agree, or allowed by a majority of commission members; and would sunset at the end of this year. Sounds right? What could be more important than understanding why and how our democracy was attacked? Not so in modern day Republican politics.