Multiple activists have been arrested after entering House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s office on Sept. 11 and staging a protest over HIV/AIDS funding, according to officials.
At least seven protesters were arrested during the incident, Capitol Police confirmed in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times.
“This morning, multiple individuals were demonstrating inside a House Office Building. After the demonstrators refused to cease demonstrating, USCP then arrested the 4 males and 3 females for unlawful entry,” a Capitol Police spokesperson said.
It is not clear exactly how long the protest lasted or if Mr. McCarthy was out of his office when the protesters stormed in.
It shows multiple individuals seated on the floor of Mr. McCarthy’s office, linking arms and raising their fists in the air while chanting “Pass PEPFAR now, McCarthy!” referring to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
PEPFAR is a government initiative introduced by former President George W. Bush to address the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. The program provides funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and epidemic control, as well as research and treatment.
Since its inception in 2003, PEPFAR has saved more than 25 million lives and “dramatically improved health outcomes” in more than 55 partner countries, according to the White House.
Abortion Concerns
The program has since been reauthorized three times, and President Joe Biden in January indicated that he would work with lawmakers in Congress to pass a government funding bill for the initiative to extend for a fourth time before it expires on Sept. 30.However, House Republicans have so far stalled reauthorization efforts amid concerns that the program’s roughly $7 billion in funding may be used to support abortions.
“Congress should resist the Biden Administration’s effort to poison bipartisan support for PEPFAR by misusing it to promote abortion under the guise of sexual and reproductive health and transgenderism,” the think tank wrote in its report.
The Biden administration has denied those claims.
The activists who illegally occupied Mr. McCarthy’s office were with two New York City-based nonprofits: Housing Works and Health GAP, according to officials.
“As activists from @housingworks and @HealthGAP are arrested in an act of civil disobedience in Speaker McCarthy’s office, a reminder that @PEPFAR exists today because of brave activist direct action targeting duty bearers. Proud of activists! #ProudofPEPFAR,” the organization wrote.
‘Political Football’
Charles King, CEO of Housing Works, was among those arrested, the organization confirmed.“PEPFAR has saved millions of lives. It is criminal for some members of Congress to treat it as a political football,” Mr. King said in a statement following the protest. “AIDS isn’t over until it’s over for everyone. PEPFAR has been essential to helping people in developing countries flatten the curve of HIV transmission. The United States has committed to the international goal of ending AIDS by 2030, and we cannot do that if PEPFAR is threatened.”
“Haiti relies on PEPFAR funding for all of its HIV treatment,” Mr. King continued. “Housing Works is intimately involved in monitoring the distribution of ARVs [antiretrovirals] in Haiti, which are 100 percent funded through PEPFAR, so we are acutely aware of the risk posed by any threat to the funding of this vital program.”
Elsewhere, Asia Russell, executive director of Health GAP, accused House Republicans of “playing political games with the lives of countless adults, children, and newborns with HIV and most affected by HIV across the globe and here in the U.S.”
Ms. Russell was also arrested on Monday, she confirmed.
“Extremists in the House have sunk to a new low. Never in the 20-year history of PEPFAR have lawmakers pulled such outrageous stunts. We demand a five-year reauthorization of PEPFAR in its current form, and full funding for HIV treatment and prevention programs in the U.S.” Ms. Russell added.
The House will be back in session this week following summer break although it is still unclear whether the PEPFAR funding will be reauthorized.
Katabella Roberts is a news writer for The Epoch Times, focusing primarily on the United States, world, and business news.
Reprinted with Permission from The Epoch Times – By Katabella Roberts
So they were arrested. Are they still in jail like the patriots who protested on January 6th?
Funding social pogroms that have no better outcomes is wasting taxpayer money and creating bureaucracies that use it to build the useless monsters that aren’t accountable to no one.
Had to be an insurrection, right?
Did they get thrown in the dungeon?
Two tier justice maybe.
There is a free way to eliminate AIDS in a couple generations- it is called the marriage of one man to one woman for life with complete faithfulness to each other. That’s not politically correct these days! I’ll never forget my parents telling me that they made a commitment when they got married to never let another person touch them in an “inappropriate” manner. They were happily married over 60 years until their death. Faithfulness and loyalty to one’s spouse costs the taxpayers nothing and keeps one emotionally, physically, and spiritually healthy.
Like so many vices, if you do disgusting crimes, they will have consequences. And no one else should pay for it, only the perpatrator!
I’m surprised they were actually arrested. Will they receive any punishment, probably not especially if they flash their registered democrat voter card.
Please go back to the AARP. You obviously have gotten drunk on the cool-aid.
I see our new catch phrase here. “flatten the curve”.
After 20+ years, I don’t think that’s what you are trying to do any more.
When is the AMAC censors going to prohibit Comrade “Ronald Reagan” from using a surname that certainly isn’t his with his asinine comments. It shows his audacity in trying to attack the memory of one of America’s greatest Presidents!
Coitus HIV / AIDS, forty years of funding a behavioral disease. Phooey.
… five gets you ten two-faced Kevin McCarthy winds up, with a herpe on his lip –