The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) delivered cots to National Guard members stationed at the Capitol, according to a statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
D.C. asked for 1,260 cots from FEMA Region Three to be dispatched to the troops, a request that was “received and promptly fulfilled” on Saturday around 4 p.m., a FEMA spokesperson told the DCNF.
“This rapid fulfillment was made possible by the seamless integration of FEMA personnel deployed to provide support from within the District’s Emergency Operations Center,” the spokesperson told the DCNF.
“The cots were requested to provide comfort for members of the National Guard supporting public safety personnel and the upcoming presidential inauguration in D.C.”
Photos depicted the troops previously sleeping on the Capitol floors on Jan. 12 with their guns alongside them.
Members of the National Guard unload cots after being seen sleeping on the floor of the US Capitol pic.twitter.com/fXokhumB0L
— The Hill (@thehill) January 18, 2021
National guardsmen were deployed to Washington D.C. to secure the Capitol following the Jan.6 riot against the Electoral College’s certification of the presidential election results.
An additional 13 Congressional members asked the chairman and ranking member of the Committee on House for “members of the National Guard, law enforcement, and other public safety personnel are permitted to use shower and locker room facilities within the House,” according to a Jan. 14 letter. House Democrat Reps. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and Betty McCollum of Minnesota called on Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy “to make available cots or other equipment,” according to a Jan. 14 letter.
Vice Chief of Staff General Joseph Martin and Army Undersecretary James McPherson told Congressional members on Jan. 14 that the troops in the photos had been in areas that were set for breaks in between their shifts, a defense official told The Hill.
Martin and McPherson “assured staffers that all of the 7,000 National Guard men and women currently in D.C. have appropriate lodging accommodations, and that the additional influx of troops for the inauguration will also have appropriate accommodations,” the official said, according to The Hill.
Around 25,000 National Guard troops are going to D.C., The Associated Press reported.
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