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House speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned the Republican caucus for failing to hold “extreme conspiracy theorists” accountable.

“It’s just so unfortunate” that today’s vote on Marjorie Taylor Greene is happening, Pelosi said.

The Democratic speaker said she wished that House Republican leaders felt “some sense of responsibility to this institution”.

Pelosi noted that House Republican leaders chose to remove former congressman Steve King from his committee assignments over his comments on white supremacy two years ago.

“For some reason, they have chosen not to go down that path,” Pelosi said.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi again recognized the sacrifice of Brian Sicknick, the Capitol Police officer who died of his injuries from the January 6 insurrection.

Pelosi described Sicknick as a “martyr for democracy”.

A memorial service was held for Sicknick at the Capitol yesterday. Pelosi and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer both spoke at the event.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi is now holding her weekly press conference, ahead of the vote to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments over her racist and extremist views.

The Democratic speaker opened the press conference by celebrating the House’s passage of a budget resolution, paving the way for Democrats to pass Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package without any Republican support.

“We have to act now because it’s urgent, and Americans cannot afford any further delay,” Pelosi said.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi just addressed this afternoon’s vote to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments over her racist, antisemitic and extremist beliefs.

A Capitol Hill reporter asked the Democratic speaker whether she was sacred about Republicans potentially removing Democrats from committees when they take the majority at some point in the future.

“If anybody starts threatening the lives of members of Congress on the Democratic side, we’d be the first to eliminate them from committees,” Pelosi said. “They had the opportunity to do so.”

Before joining Congress, Greene repeatedly indicated support for executing Democratic politicians, including Pelosi.

House Democratic leadership pressed minority leader Kevin McCarthy to remove Greene from her committees, but he refused to do so, prompting today’s vote.

About 8% of the US population has now received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, the White House coronavirus response team noted in a tweet.

“The work we’re doing to increase supply, increase locations, and increase staff to get shots in arms are all in service of sustaining and boosting this number,” the response team said.

Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said yesterday that an average of 1.3 million Americans received a vaccine dose each day over the past week.

That means the Biden administration is on track to exceed the president’s goal of distributing 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office. But some health experts have suggested Joe Biden should set a more ambitious goal in order to get all Americans vaccinated as quickly as possible.

Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a Republican of Illinois, said he plans to vote in favor of removing Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments this afternoon.

Kinzinger told CNN that it was “disappointing by a factor of 1,000” to see members of the Republican caucus give a standing ovation to Greene yesterday, after the congresswoman has been widely condemned for her racist, anti-Semitic and extremist beliefs.

“I don’t like to reveal a ton of conference details, but she stood up and kind of gave a bit of contriteness, but then it pivoted to ‘they’re coming after you next,’” Kinzinger said of yesterday’s Republican caucus meeting.

“Obviously I had a huge problem with all of that, but the ‘they,’ being the Democrats, I think if you’re not buying into Jewish space lasers and false flag operations and QAnon stuff, to think that they’re just going to come after you next, I think is way a bridge too far.”

Kinzinger added that he wished his own party had taken the step to remove Greene from her committee assignments.

“I wish this vote on the floor today to remove her committees was something that we didn’t have to do because it would have been done by our side,” Kinzinger said. “But to see her come out of this in a strong position was crazy.”

The US Capitol Police has just announced that the force has secured enough coronavirus vaccine doses to vaccinate all of its officers.

“Thanks to the efforts of the Congressional Leadership, especially House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Administration, enough doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been secured to vaccinate all USCP personnel,” the USCP acting chief, Yogananda Pittman, said in a statement.

“I also want to acknowledge retired Lt. General Russel Honoré, who is leading the external review of Capitol Complex security at the Speaker’s request, for his assistance with this effort.”

Pittman said she expected the vaccines to be delivered “shortly,” and they would then be delivered to USCP personnel “as quickly and safely as possible”.

“The Department is grateful for the continued support of the Congressional community, especially during these unprecedented times, and I am tremendously grateful for the dedication of our officers who have worked tirelessly and sacrificed to uphold our mission,” Pittman said.

A memorial service was held for Brian Sicknick, the Capitol Police officer who died of his injuries from the January 6 insurrection, at the Capitol yesterday. Two other Capitol Police officers have died by suicide since the insurrection as well.

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

Here’s what the blog is keeping an eye on today: Joe Biden will deliver a speech at the state department this afternoon to thank the staffers there and outline his foreign policy vision.

This afternoon, the House will also vote on removing Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments over her racist, anti-Semitic and extremist rhetoric, after minority leader Kevin McCarthy refused to remove her.

The blog will have updates on both of those events coming up, so stay tuned.