On Capitol Hill, six congressional staffers were arrested Monday as they held a nonviolent civil disobedience protest inside the office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. The staffers are demanding Schumer reopen negotiations on a bill to combat the climate crisis, after West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin blocked Democrats’ latest efforts to pass new funding for green energy programs.
This week, 165+ federal and congressional staffers signed an open letter to President Biden and Chuck Schumer demanding they strip Senator Manchin of his chairmanship of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. They’re also demanding Biden declare a climate emergency and take other urgent actions to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The letter reads in part, “Even if Democrats control both chambers and the White House again in four years, inaction in this moment will cause an era of record temperatures, extreme drought, sea level rise, and other deadly climate disasters. We do not have years to waste. We have little more than a week.”