President Biden announced Thursday that the Presidential Citizens Medal will be awarded to Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the lawmakers who led the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Cheney and Thompson served as chair and vice chair of the now-defunct House Jan. 6 committee. The White House said of the honorees: “The Presidential Citizens Medal is awarded to citizens of the United States of America who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens. President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others. The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.”

Biden will also award medals to former Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.; former Sen. Ted Kaufman, D-Del.; former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan.; former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., and former Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y. Additionally, Mary Bonauto (who argued for same-sex marriage in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in the Obergefell case); and former Army nurse Diane Carlson Evans will be awarded medals.

Others recipients include medical war innovator Frank Butler, Jr.; war photographer Bobb Sager, woman’s rights advocate Eleanor Smeal, Vietnam veteran Thomas Vallely, National Breast Cancer Coalition President Frances Visco, educator Paula Wallace, and marriage equality advocate Evan Wolfson.

Posthumous recipients include Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi, who was an internment camp detainee during World War II; war reporter Joseph Galloway, civil rights advocate Louis Lorenzo Redding, and Delaware Judge Collins J. Seitz.

The Presidential Citizens Medal was established in 1969 and is recognized as the second-highest civilian award from the U.S. government (behind only the Presidential Medal of Freedom). It recognizes individuals who perform exemplary deeds of service for their country or fellow citizens.

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