Dear Friends,As the new Congress convened last year, there was an air of an uncertainty and anticipation about what really was going to happen. One of my colleagues even suggested bringing extra food and clothes to the office in case things went out of hand. That seemed a little extreme… until the morning of January 6. Walking to the office that morning was surreal. I left my office walking amongst the gathering crowd, and you could see it could get ugly.As we turned our attention to convening for the historic vote count, the COVID restrictions added to the sense of unreality. Strict limits were set by the leadership about how many of us could be in the House chambers at any one time. I was scheduled to be in the chambers a little later in the proceedings.What should have been a routine, simple ceremony, which I had participated in several times before, quickly went off the rails. I had one member of my staff in the office that day, and we watched the proceedings on television, like most of America. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing from my Republican colleagues, especially after I had a civil conversation with a new Republican member that morning.  We knew at the time that Donald Trump and his campaign were pressuring Mike Pence to unconstitutionally and illegally disregard certain states’ ballots. Pence correctly rejected that approach, despite the inflammatory rhetoric of Trump and his supporters at the rally outside the White House.Things took an ominous turn as the crowd surged to the Capitol at Trump’s urging. While the drama inside the chambers took place with unwarranted procedural objections from Republicans that ended up delaying the proceedings, things got worse outside.The breakdown in order was appalling. The attempt to attack members of the House and Senate forced them to flee for their safety. It turned the Senate and House chambers where I had spent countless hours doing the people’s business into a riot scene. But that wasn’t the worst of it. As order was restored after a pitched battle, injuries, and death, 147 of my Republican colleagues voted to overturn a free and fair democratic election. They took this reckless act as broken glass littered the floor, and before the blood had dried and the feces were cleaned up. Many of my Republican colleagues still refuse to acknowledge, let alone address, the ongoing attack on our democracy. Partisan gerrymandering, a flood of dark money, and voter suppression bills enacted in legislatures across the country are a danger unlike anything we’ve seen since the Civil War.I’m grateful that the U.S. Department of Justice is holding the perpetrators of the January 6 attack to account. I’m pleased that in the U.S. House we quickly passed legislation to ensure our elections would remain free, fair, and open to all. These efforts are now before the U.S. Senate. It is imperative that our Senate colleagues do whatever is necessary to enact these protections into law. Certainly, an arcane rule like the filibuster should not prohibit the protection of our democracy.  Today is not just a day for reflection. If we value democracy, our republic, and the fundamental right for the people to decide their leaders, today must be a day of action.