DC Activists Visit Boehner’s Home to Protest Congress Interfering in Local Affairs

For more information contact: James Jones, Communications Director
202.462.6000 x12 office / 202.557.4864 mobile / jjones@dcvote.org

February 17, 2011

Washington, DC – Nearly two dozen DC residents protested for a more than an hour this morning in front of Speaker of the House John Boehner’s local residence. The demonstrators wore colonial-style hats and chanted “Don’t tread on DC,” and “No taxation without representation” to voice their objection to the Speaker and Congress meddling in DC’s local affairs.

The House of Representatives will begin voting today on a continuing budget resolution (CR) to fund the federal government. The CR includes provisions that prohibit DC from using local funds to provide reproductive healthcare and syringe access programs that help combat the spread of DC’s HIV-AIDS epidemic, the highest in the nation.

Shortly after arriving at the home at 7:30 AM, Ilir Zherka, Executive Director of DC Vote, addressed the group. “Speaker Boehner is coming to our home telling us how to spend our money,” Zherka said. “We decided to come to his house to tell him to leave DC alone.”

Zherka and a few other protestors attempted to deliver a letter co-signed by 63 organizations, along with a tea bag imprinted with “End Taxation Without Representation, ” associating the movement with the battle cry of the American Revolution. The tax-paying citizens of Washington, DC have never had a voting representative in Congress.

However, when the demonstrators approached the Speaker’s door, security and Capitol Police rushed forward to block their path. Eventually Boehner emerged shortly after 8:30 AM, between a makeshift barricade of Capitol Police bikes. Protesters shouted, “Why are you treading on DC?,” but Boehner made no comment.

DC Vote, the protest organizer, promised more direct action, including efforts to get Senate Democrats to strip out the provisions targeting DC laws in the CR.

Click here to view the letter protesters attempted to deliver to the Speaker.

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