As 2026 got underway and much of the political world prepared to acknowledge the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office made an announcement: Federal law required Congress to install a permanent plaque to honor the law enforcement personnel who helped protect the U.S. Capitol against pro-Trump rioters, but as far as Johnson was concerned, the statute that authorized the plaque was “not implementable.”

Now, two months later, the public has received an unexpected surprise. The Washington Post reported:

The police officers were taunted and beaten. Some were knocked unconscious and dragged down stone steps, tear gas stinging their throats, to chants of ‘U.S.A! U.S.A!’ on Jan. 6, 2021, as hundreds, then thousands, swarmed the citadel of American democracy.

Now, more than five years later, and three years since Congress ignored its own deadline to install it, a memorial plaque recognizing the service of law enforcement that day is finally on display in the very building they defended from a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters intent on overturning his 2020 election loss.

To briefly recap, after the insurrectionist violence five years ago, Congress agreed to install a plaque to honor law enforcement officers who helped protect the U.S. Capitol against pro-Trump rioters. By statute, the plaque was to be placed on the western side of the building by March 2023. The plaque was ready by that deadline, but it sat in a Capitol basement utility room surrounded by tools and maintenance equipment.

That is, until early Saturday, when workers, without fanfare or controversy, bolted the plaque to a wall near an entrance on the west front of the Capitol.

The law, it appears, was “implementable” after all.

For his part, the House speaker hasn’t offered any public comment about the shift in direction, though New York Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the top Democrat on the spending committee that oversees the legislative branch, suggested the overall fight isn’t yet over.

“Nearly 4 years after the law was passed, finally, the plaque honoring the Capitol Police who kept us safe during the Jan. 6 attacks has been placed in the US Capitol,” the Democratic congressman said in a statement published to social media. He added, “Make no mistake: they did this at 4AM so no one would see, no ceremony, no real recognition. Our Capitol Police deserve more and I will continue to push [the House speaker] until they get it.”

This post updates our related earlier coverage.