Six staffers were reportedly arrested in Congress on Monday afternoon for staging a sit-in at Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer’s office and protesting about a lack of legislative action on the environment.
The congressional staffers and activists had started the demonstration earlier Monday, with 17 staffers sitting in Schumer’s office to demand that he reopen climate negotiations, according to Saul Levin, a policy adviser for progressive congresswoman Cori Bush.
“Right now, we Hill staffers are peacefully protesting Dem leaders INSIDE. To my knowledge, this has never been done,” he wrote.
Some also protested outside the building.
Schumer, Senate majority leader, had been under pressure to negotiate a climate deal, especially after the supreme court struck down a key protection of the Environmental Protection Agency.
But Schumer, and Joe Biden’s, efforts to advance climate legislation have been thwarted largely because of the opposition of the Democratic West Virginia senator Joe Manchin, who has been called a “modern day villain” for his ties to the fossil fuel industry and killing off the president’s environmental proposals.
Later in the day the sit-in at Schumer’s office seemed to turn more contentious.
A tweet posted by NBC News reporter Julia Jester features a short video purporting to show one of the staff members in handcuffs, explaining why the group jeopardized their careers to take the action.
The reporter asked the male staffer what they were demanding of the senior Democrat. He replied: “to reopen negotiations on the climate reconciliation package … and pass climate legislation”.
Christian Hall, a congressional reporter for Punchbowl News, also tweeted that Philip Bennet, president of the Congressional Workers Union, had been taken away in handcuffs.
The reporter asked why the group had chosen Schumer’s office, and not that of Manchin. (Earlier today, Manchin announced he had tested positive for Covid-19 and was working remotely).
The staffer replied cryptically: “Because there’s always going to be a sheep that strays away from the herd.”