参议员罗伊·布朗特说，国会需要在确保国会大厦安全的同时，保持对公众的开放。周日在美国广播公司的“本周”节目中说持刀男子他的车撞上了美国国会大厦的路障，杀死了一名国会警察。
“我认为它不能胜任工作。事实上，当汽车驶过时，围栏就在那里，”参议员告诉《本周》主播乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯。
布朗特补充说:“我认为把击剑作为国会大厦的永久组成部分是错误的。”。
周五的致命事件发生在事故发生后不到三个月1月6日风暴造成五人死亡的美国国会大厦。
布朗特还引用了退役中将拉塞尔·奥诺雷的话审查安全故障并告诉立法者击剑会产生一种虚假的安全感。
布朗特周日表示:“几乎可以肯定，国会大厦接下来发生的事情不会是上次发生的事情。”。
在《本周》的早期采访中，斯特凡诺普洛斯问奥诺雷1月6日骚乱后拆除围栏的时间。
“你说我们试图平衡安全性和可访问性。我们知道，许多国会议员呼吁在1月6日的围困后拆除永久围栏。是不是开始降得太早了?”斯特凡诺普洛斯问道。
“我不这么认为，乔治。我们看到的击剑和人是1/6后的结果，也是为就职典礼做准备的结果。它从来没有下来，因为有很多威胁信息，在3月4日的潜在活动，”他说。
这位退役中将表示，缩小建筑群周围的永久性围栏符合减少对建筑群威胁的要求。
尽管奥诺雷同意国会大厦越来越成为一个目标，但他说，“从国会大厦内部，与参众两院的许多国会议员交谈，他们都给我们留下了这样的印象，他们的首要任务是保护国会大厦，但确保它100%的公众访问权。”
布朗特正在领导一项两党合作调查骚乱的努力，他与参议员克里斯·范·霍伦(Chris Van Hollen)和哥伦比亚特区共同提出了一项法案。埃莉诺·霍姆斯·诺顿阻止在国会大厦周围使用永久性围栏。安全审查中的建议之一是可以根据需要快速搭建围栏。
奥诺雷说:“我们已经向他们提出了建议，工程师团正在准备加固国会大厦的外部地面，承包商将根据需要在地面上安装先进的围栏。”
他还强调，改善该建筑群安全的最重要的解决方案是增加国会警察的人数，并通过补充预算为他们提供额外的资金。
“现在是国会制定计划的时候了。我们给了他们计划。我们努力把它给了他们。现在他们必须努力实现这个计划，”奥诺雷告诉斯特凡诺普洛斯。
“国会大厦的警察活该。我们的国家值得拥有。而那些失去亲人的家庭也是活该。我们需要加强我们的游戏来支持国会警察，”奥诺雷继续说道。
布朗特同意奥诺雷的大部分评估，但反对增加国会警察部队的规模。
布朗特说:“我们正在招募的人员和我们正在训练的人员——我认为这可能比部队的规模更重要。”。
然而，国会警察联盟敦促国会加强该组织周围的安全存在，该组织主席古斯·帕帕萨纳西乌周六在新闻稿中写道，“这次袭击，加上1月6日起义的暴力事件，使我们的官员感到震惊。”
“奥诺雷将军的工作队已经要求增聘数百名军官，并对其他几十个作战、训练和物质基础设施进行改进。“我们支持奥诺雷将军的建议，”帕帕萨纳西乌补充道国会可以立即采取措施解决这个问题。问题是，国会会这么做吗?"
围绕向国会警察提供更多资金的辩论正值国会准备接受乔·拜登总统周三提出的2万亿美元基础设施倡议之际。鉴于共和党人已经表示反对该方案，斯特凡诺普洛斯问布朗特，为什么共和党会抵制受公众欢迎的支出。
“你们的领导人米奇·麦康奈尔已经暗示共和党人将反对这些提议。但是民意调查显示，在道路、桥梁、高速铁路、宽带方面的投资越来越受欢迎。有没有担心共和党在这个问题上站错了队?”斯特凡诺普洛斯按下。
“嗯，我其实赞成这一切。布朗特回应道:“如果这个提议只是为了达到这个目的，我不认为这个方案的两党支持者会有什么问题。”。“现在，我已经几次向白宫表示，如果你将这个一揽子计划狭隘地集中在基础设施上，你将很容易获得两党的胜利。”
布朗特说，他对该法案的一个问题是，与道路、桥梁和机场相比，它为充电站提供了大量资金。
在随后对斯特凡诺普洛斯的采访中，交通部长皮特·布蒂吉格直接回应了布朗特。
“我非常尊重布朗特参议员，但我将努力说服他，电动汽车充电基础设施绝对是美国人未来出行方式的核心部分，不是遥远的未来，而是现在，”但是我在“本周”节目中说
斯特凡诺普洛斯还在共和党反对拜登计划如何资助该法案的问题上挑战布朗特。
“共和党人反对拜登总统提议的增税和公司税，将税率提高到28%，这仍然低于特朗普总统减税之前的水平。股票市场现在正蓬勃发展。公司股票上涨。那么，现在不是将这些利润投资于未来的好时机吗?”斯特凡诺普洛斯问道。
布朗特说，民主党提高公司税的提议可能会对希望为美国带来就业机会的企业产生负面影响。
参议员说:“随着企业考虑资源配置和将东西带回美国——重组他们的公司是如何组成的——公司税是其中的一个重要因素。”
此外，布朗特指出，在通过降低公司税的立法仅四年后，任何共和党参议员都不太可能投票赞成提高公司税。
“2017年在场的每个参议院共和党人都投票支持2017年税收法案。要求他们扭转局面，在不到四年的时间里，扭转局面是不太可能发生的事情，”他补充说。
Congress needs to balance securing the Capitol with public access: Sen. Roy Blunt
Congress needs to balance making the Capitol complex secure, while at the same time maintaining its openness to the public, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" days after aknife-wielding manrammed his vehicle into a U.S. Capitol barricade, killing a Capitol Police officer.
"I don't think it does the job. In fact, the fencing was right there when the car drove through," the senator told "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos.
"I think it would be a mistake for fencing to be a permanent part of the Capitol," Blunt added.
The fatal incident on Friday occurred less than three months after theJan. 6 stormingof the U.S. Capitol that left five people dead.
Blunt also cited retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, who led areview of the security failuresat the U.S. Capitol in January and told lawmakers that fencing can create a false sense of security.
"The idea that what happens next at the Capitol will be what happened last is almost certain not to be the case," Blunt said Sunday.
In an earlier interview on "This Week," Stephanopoulos asked Honoré about the timing for removing the fencing put up after the Jan. 6 riots.
"You say we're trying to balance security and accessibility. We know that many members of Congress have called for the permanent fencing to come down after the Jan. 6 siege. Did it start to come down too soon?" Stephanopoulos asked.
"I don't think so, George. The fencing and people we were seeing were a result of post-1/6, as well as preparation for the inauguration. It never came down because there was a lot of threat messages that came in for potential activity on 4 March," he said.
The retired lieutenant general said the scaling back of the permanent fencing perimeter around the complex was in line with a reduction of threats aimed at the complex.
And although Honoré agreed the Capitol is increasingly becoming a target, he said, "From inside the Capitol, talking to many members of Congress on both the Senate and the House side, both parties, they all left us with the impression their number one mission is to secure the Capitol, but make sure it has 100% public access."
Blunt is leading a bipartisan effort to investigate the riots and he has co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and District of Columbia Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton to prevent the use of permanent fencing around the Capitol. Among the suggestions in the security review is a fence that could be quickly erected as needed.
"We've given them recommendations, the Corps of Engineers is standing by to reinforce the outer grounds of the Capitol with contractors coming in to put advanced fencing that can come out of the ground as required," Honoré said.
He also stressed that the most important solution to improving security at the complex is to increase the number of Capitol Police officers and provide them with additional funding through a supplemental budget.
"It's time for Congress to work the plan. We gave them the plan. We worked hard to give it to them. Now they've got to work to make that plan come through," Honoré told Stephanopoulos.
"The police in the Capitol deserve this. Our nation deserves it. And those families who have lost loved ones deserve it. And we need to up our game in support of the Capitol Police," Honoré continued.
Blunt agreed with most of Honoré's assessment but pushed back on increasing the size of the Capitol Police force.
"What we're doing to recruit and what we're doing to train -- I think that's maybe even more important than the size of the forces, " Blunt said.
However, the Capitol Police Union is urging Congress to increase the security presence around the complex with the organization's chairman Gus Papathanasiouwriting in press release Saturday that "this attack, combined with the violent events of the January 6th insurrection, have left our officers reeling."
"General Honoré's Task Force has called for the hiring of hundreds of additional officers and dozens of other operational, training, and physical infrastructure improvements. We support General Honoré recommendations," Papathanasiou added. "There are immediate steps Congress can take to address this. The question is, will Congress do so?"
The debate over providing more money to the Capitol Police comes as Congress prepares to take up a $2 trillion initiative on infrastructure proposed by President Joe Biden on Wednesday. With Republicans already expressing opposition to the package, Stephanopoulos asked Blunt why the GOP would resist spending that is popular with the public.
"Your leader, Mitch McConnell, has already signaled Republicans are going to oppose those proposals. But polls show that investing more in roads, bridges, high-speed rail, broadband is widely popular. Any worry that the GOP is on the wrong side of this issue?" Stephanopoulos pressed.
"Well, I'm actually for all of that. If the proposal was to do just that, I don't think there'd be a problem with the bipartisan group of supporters for this package," Blunt responded. "I've reached out to the White House a couple of times now and said, you've got an easy bipartisan win here if you'll keep this package narrowly focused on infrastructure."
Blunt said one of the problems he has with the bill is that it provides a significant amount of funding to electric charging stations compared to roads, bridges and airports.
In a later interview with Stephanopoulos, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg directly responded to Blunt.
"I've got a lot of respect for Sen. Blunt, but I'm going to work to try to persuade him that electrical vehicle charging infrastructure is absolutely a core part of how Americans are going to need to get around in the future, and not the distant, far-off future, but right now,"Buttigieg said on "This Week."
Stephanopoulos also challenged Blunt on Republican opposition to how Biden plans to fund the bill.
"The Republicans are against the tax increase and corporate tax increase that President Biden is proposing, raising it back to 28%, which is still below where it was before President Trump's tax cuts. The stock market is booming now. Corporate stocks are up. So, isn't this a good time to invest some of those profits in the future?" Stephanopoulos asked.
Blunt said that the Democrats' proposal to raise the corporation tax could negatively impact businesses looking to bring jobs back to the U.S.
"As businesses are thinking about resourcing and bringing things back to the United States -- restructuring how their companies are put together -- the corporate tax is an important element of that," the senator said.
Additionally, Blunt pointed out the unlikeliness that any Republican senator would vote for raising the corporation tax just four years after passing legislation that lowered it.
"Every Republican in the Senate who was there in 2017 voted for the 2017 tax bill. To ask them to turn around, and within less than four years, turn that around is a very unlikely thing to happen," he added.
