Members of ADAPT, a disability rights group, protest in front of the Russell Senate Office Building. (Photo by Julie Strupp)


Update: A total of 181 people were arrested, according to U.S. Capitol Police. Fifteen people were charged with disruption of Congress, 143 people were charged with “crowding, obstructing, or incommoding,” and 23 people were charged with both “crowding, obstructing, or incommoding” and resisting arrest.

Original:

As soon as the gavel hit, the chants started: “No cuts to Medicaid… save our liberties.”

Amid Republican’s latest—and seemingly doomed—effort to dismantle Obamacare, protesters lined up to attend a hearing of the Senate’s finance committee on the legislation put forth by Senators Lindsey Graham, R-SC, and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. As people, many of whom have disabling conditions, vocally registered their opposition to the bill, Capitol Police officers physically dragged them out. Dozens of people have been arrested, though the final count is not yet known.

“If you want a hearing, you better shut up,” Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told the protesters, before calling a recess until order was restored.

Advocates lined up in the wee morning hours to get into the hearing room, and dozens more never made it inside. Many or all of the protesters are affiliated with the grassroots coalition ADAPT, and this is not their first protest rodeo.

ADAPT has been fighting for disability rights since the 1970s, and in recent months, members have been repeatedly arrested for protesting healthcare repeal efforts. They made headlines in June, when the group organized a “die-in” and blocked the hallway outside of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office. In a period of two months over the summer, nearly 500 arrests were recorded during healthcare-related protests at the Capitol.

As DCist reported in July:

Footage of protesters with disabilities, many in wheelchairs or using medical devices, being dragged out of the U.S. Capitol sparked outrage earlier this month, but less has been reported about the activist group behind the action.

ADAPT began in Denver, Colorado back in 1974, and since then chapters have sprung up in at least 30 states around the country, including in Washington, D.C. They’re strictly grassroots (“If you try to sue us, you’ll find there’s no one to sue,” [ADAPT member Daniel] Kleinmann says) and don’t have official leaders per se, yet have been successfully lobbying for a variety of health and accessibility issues in the past several decades.

One of their first successes was getting McDonalds to make their restaurants wheelchair-accessible before it was federally mandated. ADAPT members still stop by en masse on their way to protest for an “ADAPT steak” (aka a McDonalds hamburger) in gratitude.

“We didn’t ask to be put on Medicaid, let’s just make that clear. We didn’t ask to be disabled. We were born with a disability and Medicaid was there to take care of us when we were born, because a lot of us were supposed to die,” says ADAPT member Latoya Maddox. “I had childhood epilepsy and a bunch of other stuff that goes on with my body that I can’t help. [Medicaid] is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. It helps us live our lives as civilized citizens.”

The group stayed true to their pledge to fight efforts to cut Medicaid.

“We generally come up here and make noise, and escalate when we’re refused…if we don’t feel like we’re being heard, we will make our presence known,” Kleinmann told DCist in July. “We pride ourselves on being unpredictable, and sometimes police handle that poorly.”

Here’s the scene down at the Senate today:

Previously:
Healthcare Protesters Have Been Arrested On The Hill 500 Times Over The Past Two Months
Police Drag Disabled Demonstrators From Capitol Hill During Healthcare Bill Protest

Filed Under: graham-cassidy, healthcare, protest,