WASHINGTON (AP) – A year after South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from its capitol grounds, official Washington is struggling with further restrictions on the flag’s display on federal property, including the U.S. Capitol complex.
The National Park Service, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Army have longstanding guidelines for its cemeteries that permit the display of the Confederate flag one or two days a year. This is particularly true in Southern states that celebrate Confederate Memorial Day, giving descendants of Southern soldiers the chance to use the flag to commemorate their ancestors.
In recent weeks, Republicans quietly dumped a provision preventing the flag from being flown over mass graves of Confederate soldiers from broader legislation to fund the Department of Veterans Affairs. Flag displays would still have been allowed over the graves of individual soldiers.
The move angered Democrats, especially since both House Republicans and Democrats had voted in May for the provision. Further complicating the issue is that the flag provision had been combined with an overall bill to fund the fight against the Zika virus.
“Republicans even used this … listen to this one – to block the prohibition of Confederate flags on federal facilities,” said top Senate Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada.