[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 355 Referred to Committee House (RTH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 355

           Raising a question of the privileges of the House.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              July 9, 2015

             Ms. Pelosi submitted the following resolution

                              July 9, 2015

      By motion of the House, referred to the Committee on House 
                             Administration

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
           Raising a question of the privileges of the House.

Whereas, at 4 p.m. today, July 9th, the Governor of South Carolina will sign 
        legislation to remove the display of the Confederate battle flag;
Whereas, on December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first State to secede 
        from the Union;
Whereas, on January 9, 1861, Mississippi seceded from the Union, stating in its 
        ``Declaration of Immediate Causes'' that ``[o]ur position is thoroughly 
        identified with the institution of slavery--the greatest material 
        interest of the world.'';
Whereas, on February 9, 1861, the Confederate States of America was formed with 
        a group of 11 States as a purported sovereign nation and with Jefferson 
        Davis of Mississippi as its president;
Whereas, on March 11, 1861, the Confederate States of America adopted its own 
        constitution;
Whereas, on April 12, 1861, the Confederate States of America fired shots upon 
        Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, effectively beginning the 
        Civil War;
Whereas the United States did not recognize the Confederate States of America as 
        a sovereign nation, but rather as a rebel insurrection, and took to 
        military battle to bring the rogue States back into the Union;
Whereas, on April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses 
        S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, effectively, ending the 
        Civil War and preserving the Union;
Whereas during the Civil War, the Confederate States of America used the Navy 
        Jack, Battle Flag, and other imagery as symbols of the Confederate armed 
        forces;
Whereas since the end of the Civil War, the Navy Jack, Confederate battle flag, 
        and other imagery of the Confederacy have been appropriated by groups as 
        symbols of hate, terror, intolerance, and as supportive of the 
        institution of slavery;
Whereas groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and other White supremacist groups 
        utilize Confederate imagery to frighten, terrorize, and cause harm to 
        groups of people toward whom they have hateful intent, including 
        African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Jewish Americans;
Whereas many State and Federal political leaders, including United States 
        Senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker, along with Mississippi House 
        Speaker Philip Gunn and other State leaders, have spoken out and 
        advocated for the removal of the imagery of the Confederacy on 
        Mississippi's State flag;
Whereas many Members of Congress, including Speaker John Boehner, support the 
        removal of the Confederate flag from the grounds of South Carolina's 
        capitol;
Whereas Speaker John Boehner released a statement on the issue saying, ``I 
        commend Governor Nikki Haley and other South Carolina leaders in their 
        effort to remove the Confederate flag from Statehouse grounds. In his 
        second inaugural address 150 years ago, and a month before his 
        assassination, President Abraham Lincoln ended his speech with these 
        powerful words, which are as meaningful today as when they were spoken 
        on the East Front of the Capitol on March 4, 1865: `With malice toward 
        none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us 
        to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind 
        up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle 
        and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and 
        cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all 
        nations.''';
Whereas the House of Representatives has several State flags with imagery of the 
        Confederacy throughout its main structures and House office buildings;
Whereas it is an uncontroverted fact that symbols of the Confederacy offend and 
        insult many members of the general public who use the hallways of 
        Congress each day;
Whereas Congress has never permanently recognized in its hallways the symbols of 
        sovereign nations with whom it has gone to war or rogue entities such as 
        the Confederate States of America;
Whereas continuing to display a symbol of hatred, oppression, and insurrection 
        that nearly tore our Union apart and that is known to offend many groups 
        throughout the country would irreparably damage the reputation of this 
        august institution and offend the very dignity of the House of 
        Representatives; and
Whereas this impairment of the dignity of the House and its Members constitutes 
        a violation under rule IX of the Rules of the House of Representatives 
        of the One Hundred Fourteenth Congress: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall 
remove any State flag containing any portion of the Confederate battle 
flag, other than a flag displayed by the office of a Member of the 
House, from any area within the House wing of the Capitol or any House 
office building, and shall donate any such flag to the Library of 
Congress.
                                 <all>