The Hill News

More than a dozen AIDS activists protesting the ban on federal funding for needle-exchange programs have been detained after staging sit-ins in House lawmakers’ offices Wednesday morning.

Capitol Police reportedly arrested 13 protesters after they descended on the offices of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), and Reps. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) and Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), according to a statement issued Wednesday by an AIDS activism coalition.

Capitol Police have not yet been able to confirm the number of arrests or what charges the suspects face.

According to the statement put out by a member of Housing Works, an AIDS outreach organization that provides support services in New York, the protesters targeted the four lawmakers for their role in reinstating the ban on federal funding for needle-exchange programs last December.

“Our government should be embarrassed as this year’s host! of the International AIDS Conference to have sneaked this into an unrelated bill under the cloak of night last December” wrote Charles King, CEO of Housing Works. “The U.S. cannot be any shining example to the rest of the world on how to end the AIDS epidemic when we’re still fighting foolish policies that reject what we know works.”

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