Photo by Sarah Anne Hughes.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum this morning as part of a nation-wide protest in favor of higher wages for federally-contracted workers through an executive order.

D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton was one of several members of Congress to speak at the protest, attended by striking McDonald’s employees who work inside the Smithsonian. She called President Barack Obama’s economic speech yesterday “the defining speech of his presidency.”

“Whether he knew it or not, brothers and sisters, he joined — with his words, at least — the movement you have pioneered,” she said. “McDonald’s enjoys the prestige of being hosted by the federal government on a contract granted by the famous Smithsonian Institution. Yet the federal government knew that the Smithsonian would provide its prestigious cover to McDonald’s and its low-income workers. And that that same federal government would have to subsidize McDonald’s for many of these workers, for the cost of food stamps and health care that decent employers with decent wages and benefits offers.”

Norton called on Obama to sign an executive order: “You can require that fair wages be a factor in winning the competition for a contract like the one that McDonald’s has won.”

“Mr. President as you call for the elimination of unfair wages, I hope you remember the words of Jesus,” she continued. “Who said, ‘Physician, heal thyself.'”

According to Good Jobs Nation, a coalition of of low-wage workers employed by government contractors, similar protests took place in 100 other cities.

“While McDonald’s rakes in tons of money from its contract with the federal government, I have to walk to work because I can’t even afford the bus fare,” Alexis Vasquez, a striking Air and Space McDonald’s worker, said in a statement. “The President says he wants to reduce inequality and create good jobs – he should start by paying the two million federally-contracted workers like me a decent wage.” Vasquez said at the protest he is “working to help his family to survive.”

A spokesperson for Good Jobs Nation was unable to say how many federally-contracted McDonald’s workers had walked out of their job.

When DCist asked Norton for her opinion on the D.C. Council’s vote to raise the minimum wage in D.C., she declined to answer at first. “Obviously, I’m very pleased that D.C. is doing the right thing,” she said, adding that she didn’t want to “distract” from the subject of today’s protest.