Occupy D.C. activists are supposedly marching to protest something involving Congress, but the reality is the Occupy movement has fallen out of the news cycle lately and needs to do something big to get itself back in. I’m not sure if this protest will cut it, though. The activists were hoping for a turnout of 2,000, and as you can see from the live feed, the crowd looks like it’s only a few hundred right now.

WaPo is reporting a handful of arrests already this morning, and some shoving matches with police. Capitol Hill police say one arrest was for assault on an officer. City residents are already fed up with the Occupiers, who are still living in an increasingly smelly and filth-ridden encampment in McPherson Square. Any violence, vandalism or traffic congestion caused by the Occupiers today will only increase pressure on the federal government to evict the protesters:

But pressure was mounting on the Obama administration to evict the protesters from their encampment in a federal park, with the city’s mayor citing unsanitary conditions last week in a request to have the protesters moved. Until now the National Park Service has tolerated the occupiers [who have no permit for McPherson Square], allowing them to sleep in a square where federal regulations explicitly prohibit camping. …

The White House has deferred to local authorities in New York and elsewhere as they have evicted ‘Occupy’ camps. But unlike other cities, the federal government is managing the demonstrations because the park service oversees many D.C. park lands, leaving the decision in the hands of President Barack Obama’s administration.

City officials have already pointed out the conditions at the Occupy camp are unlivable. So the responsibility for any incidents resulting from that now falls to the federal government. But will the Obama administration actually take action? Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor Jean Quan were pilloried for evicting the protesters in their cities, and the Obama administration may not want to risk angering its base during an election year.