Group of Republicans Vote Against Giving Congressional Gold Medals to Capitol Police

Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty U.S. Capitol building breached

Twenty-one Republicans voted against a measure that would award medals to police some five months after the deadly U.S. Capitol insurrection that led to the death of one officer and four others.

The measure to award three Congressional Gold Medals (one to the U.S. Capitol Police force, one to the Metropolitan Police Department and one to display at the Smithsonian Institution) still overwhelmingly passed the House on Tuesday, despite the objections from some lawmakers.

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene - no stranger to controversy herself - told reporters that she voted against the bill because she took issue with the use of the word "insurrection" to describe the events of Jan. 6, in which a large mob of Donald Trump supporters breached the Capitol building, forcing the evacuation of lawmakers on either side of the aisle.

Greene has also said she doesn't agree with the bill's phrasing of the Capitol as "the temple of our American Democracy."

Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar also voted no on the legislation, arguing on Tuesday that Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by an officer while trying to break into one part of the building, was "executed."

Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger - a vocal critic of Trump from within the GOP - denounced those who voted no on the measure.

"How you can vote no to this is beyond me. Then again, denying an insurrection is as well," Kinzinger wrote on Twitter. "To the brave Capitol (and DC metro PD) thank you. To the 21: they will continue to defend your right to vote no anyway."

How you can vote no to this is beyond me. Then again, denying an insurrection is as well. To the brave Capitol (and DC metro PD) thank you. To the 21: they will continue to defend your right to vote no anyway https://t.co/08gmIPu7wX

— Adam Kinzinger (@AdamKinzinger) June 15, 2021

The Senate has passed its own resolution to bestow the medals, though GOP opposition to the bill has nearly doubled since it was first introduced in March, when 12 Republicans opposed awarding medals to the officers.

RELATED: Capitol Police Officer Says 'Inconceivable' Republicans Would Vote Against Investigation of Riots

The vote on awarding the officers the Congressional Gold Medal comes on the heels of efforts to create a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.

Law-enforcement groups and the mother of slain officer Brian Sicknick have urged members of Congress to approve the plan, but Republicans have so far rejected those efforts, arguing that the investigation would be too political.

Speaking to reporters on the Hill as she went door-to-door to lawmakers' offices last month, Gladys Sicknick said that her son "was just there for our country and for these guys," gesturing around the Senate office building in which lawmakers work and are protected by Capitol Police. "He just was doing his job and he got caught up in it. It's very sad."

In May, an anonymous Capitol Police officer penned a letter to lawmakers, arguing that it would be "inconceivable" not to investigate.

"It is inconceivable that some of the Members we protect, would downplay the events of January 6th. Member safety was dependent upon the heroic actions of USCP. It is a privileged assumption for Members to have the point of view that 'It wasn't that bad,' " the officer wrote, in an anonymous letter printed on USCP letterhead, sent to members of Congress and obtained by CNN and other media outlets. "That privilege exists because the brave men and women of the USCP protected you, the Members."