OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington state lawmakers are defending their plan to open the legislative session in person next Monday amid fears of riots.

Their comments follow the siege of the nation’s Capitol building in Washington, D.C., as well as the storming of the governor’s property in Olympia by President Trump’s loyalists.

Leaders from both parties have said that the state Constitution requires lawmakers to meet in person, that meeting in the Capitol would be safer than meeting elsewhere and that it is crucial to demonstrate that lawmakers will not be intimidated from doing the people’s business.