Six House staffers on Monday were arrested by Capitol Police after they staged a protest inside the office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., demanding he resume negotiations on a climate bill, Axios reports.
Staffers for five congressional Democrats, including Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri, Ro Khanna of California, Jamaal Bowman of New York, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, were arrested after they refused to leave Schumer’s office, where they had been pushing for him to reopen negotiations with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., on a bill to address climate change.
Schumer said earlier this month that although discussions with Manchin on a bipartisan energy bill failed to produce an agreement, he would continue to seek a deal.
"Right now, we Hill staffers are peacefully protesting Dem leaders INSIDE. To my knowledge, this has never been done," Saul Levin, a policy adviser for Bush, tweeted on Monday. "We've also never seen climate catastrophe, so we're meeting the moment."
Saul later told NBC News that Schumer is "giving up, but some of us are going to live through the climate crisis."
In a letter to Schumer and President Joe Biden on Monday, 165 staffers in Congress and among various executive agencies wrote: "We have worked tirelessly to achieve a safe and livable future. Meanwhile, you have refused to declare a climate emergency."
They "demand that you take ambitious, assertive action before the end of July to address the climate crisis," and complain that Schumer made "problematic trades" during negotiations with Manchin.