Congressional staffers took a striking step Monday: They protested their own bosses, occupying Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's office to demand Democrats continue negotiations on climate legislation. Six House staffers were arrested, out of the 17 aides involved in the sit-in. While that's a small protest by D.C. standards, where marches or actions can draw tens of thousands, it's a rather large move for congressional employees who have never done anything like it before. The demonstration underscores the frustration within the Democratic Party at the lack of action to tackle the climate crisis. "We organized the sit-in because we are in an absolute emergency and we have exhausted our usual options," said Saul Levin, a Democratic aide who is a member of the Congressional Progressive Staff Association. Levin, who was arrested Monday, coordinates the association's Climate Working Group. "Dem[ocratic] leaders have exhausted their usual options too, but we are imploring them to continue negotiations with more vigor than ever, as if they were going to live through the climate crisis the way we will," Levin said in a Twitter direct message. Despite their front-row seat to the legislative process, congressional staffers tend to keep their critiques out of the public eye. But earlier this month, when West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin tanked a sweeping spending bill to slash planet-warming pollution, that discretion flew out the window for some aides. "We hope that doing something unusual on an emergency basis will inspire [lawmakers] to do the same," Levin said. Two hundred staffers also signed their initials to a letter sent earlier this month to Democratic leadership demanding clean energy and climate legislation. While uncommon, it's not unheard of for congressional staffers to use their positions to express themselves. One hundred congressional employees gathered on the House steps in 2014 to silently protest police brutality after officers killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York. Still, Daniel Holt, an assistant historian of the U.S. Senate Historical Office, said he was unable to find other examples of staffers engaged in protests in the Capitol or adjacent office buildings. The legislative inertia comes as the reality of the climate crisis is sweeping across the country and world in the form of brutal heat waves, wildfires, glacial melts and floods. More than 100 million Americans were under heat advisories or warnings this past weekend, and a record-breaking amount of rain sparked flash flooding in the greater St. Louis area today. Climate scientists agree that unless the world can significantly cut its carbon pollution, these natural disasters will only grow in frequency and intensity.
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment