Years after it was supposed to be put on display on Capitol Hill, a plaque honoring the police officers who defended the Capitol building during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot remains in storage. 

Now, Democrats are putting up replicas all over the halls of Congress as part of an effort to pressure Republican leaders to finally mount the real thing. 

“The irony of it is that you could have put up the one plaque. And what is the result? You now have dozens around the Capitol,” said Rep. Joseph Morelle, a Rochester, N.Y. Democrat. 

Morelle, who is the top-ranking Democrat on the committee that manages House operations, helped spearhead the rollout of the poster-sized copies of the plaque, which kicked off a few weeks ago.

What You Need To Know

  • That plaque, which lists the more than 20 local, state and federal law enforcement agencies that responded on Jan. 6, was created as the result of a law passed in 2022. It mandated that the plaque be put on display by 2023

  • The plaque remains in storage

  • Rochester-area Rep. Joseph Morelle and roughly 120 Democratic lawmakers have posted replicas of the plaque outside their offices around Capitol Hill 

  • Speaker Mike Johnson's office did not respond to a request for comment regarding why the plaque has still not been mounted 

Those facsimiles can now be found outside the offices of roughly 120 Democratic lawmakers, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to Morelle’s team. 

Morelle recently posted a video on social media of the real plaque, which he found in storage on Capitol Hill. 

That plaque, which lists the more than 20 local, state and federal law enforcement agencies that responded on Jan. 6, was created as the result of a law passed in 2022. It mandated that the plaque be put on display by 2023. 

Morelle and other Democrats accuse top Republicans — including Speaker Mike Johnson — of delaying the plaque’s mounting. Republicans took over control of the House and Senate in the years since the law mandating the plaque’s mounting was enacted.

Democrats argue Republicans are worried about upsetting President Donald Trump, who has always downplayed Jan. 6, when his supporters swarmed the building trying to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election in 2020 — an election Trump still falsely insists he won. 

“The bottom line is: You don't want to honor these people because you don't want people to remember what happened on Jan. 6,” Morelle said of the GOP. “We're the opposite. We want people to remember so that we don't fall prey to this again.”

Some Republicans have cited technical issues with the plaque itself and how to present it on Capitol Hill as causing the delay.

Morelle hopes the facsimiles increase pressure on GOP leadership to act. But, he admits, it may take power in Congress changing hands for the real plaque to ever see the light of day. 

“I think it certainly will require a Democratic Congress, which is tragic that you'd have to have a change in leadership to get them to do the right thing, to abide by the law,” he said. 

“Or it will take courage by members of Congress to not have to listen to the president about every single thing,” he added, likening Republicans to children treating Trump as their father.

Spectrum News reached out to Speaker Johnson’s office to ask about the status of the plaque and to request an explanation for the delay. They did not respond by deadline. 

More than a year ago, a spokesperson for Johnson told NBC News they were working with the Architect of the Capitol to get the plaque mounted. It, of course, has still not been hung up.