House Republican leadership was forced to pull a spending bill from the floor Thursday after an uproar over the Confederate flag threatened to sink the entire measure.
The dramatic move came after Southern Republican lawmakers revolted against a Democratic plan to ban the flag from cemeteries. GOP leaders were already struggling to cobble together enough support to pass an Interior Department spending bill, and the protest by lawmakers over the flag issue likely would have caused the appropriations bill to fail.
“This was an attempt to codify the Obama administration’s own directive to our national cemeteries and it is unfortunate that it has devolved into a political battle. It is our hope that we can have a thoughtful discussion on this matter that is free of politics,” said a GOP leadership aide.
Just as the legislature in South Carolina banished the flag from the grounds of its capitol in Columbia, the debate burst into full view in Washington.
The question at issue was narrow — whether the government should allow Confederate flags in federal cemeteries, and in U.S. park shops — but the politics are, obviously, extremely sensitive for the Republican Party and the House GOP conference. Which is top House Republican leaders, including Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), plan to discuss at a meeting Thursday morning.
The debate over the flag broke out on the House floor during a late-night round of legislative wrangling over an Interior Department spending bill. On Tuesday evening, the House adopted several amendments to banish the confederate flag from federal cemeteries, and prevent the U.S. Park Service from doing business with shops that sell the confederate flag.