[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11103-11104]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      CONFEDERATE FLAG AMENDMENTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, there are days in this House when morality 
and the values of our country, as articulated in the Declaration of 
Independence and in the Constitution of our country, summon us to vote 
as Americans, as moral representatives, and as representatives of the 
values of our country. Today is such a day, my colleagues.
  Three Democratic amendments were adopted earlier in the consideration 
of the Interior bill that would end the practice of displaying or 
selling Confederate battle flags and flag merchandise in national parks 
and National Park Service cemeteries. Those amendments were adopted by 
voice vote. They reflect the strong consensus in this country and, 
hopefully, in this Congress, that a symbol of slavery, sedition, 
segregation, and secession has no place in our national parks or in the 
cemeteries whose grounds have been hallowed by the veterans who rest 
there after having served and given their lives in defense of freedom 
and justice and the values of our country.
  Unbelievably, however, Mr. Speaker, several hours ago, in the dark of 
night, the chairman of the Interior Subcommittee offered an amendment 
on this floor that would effectively strike those amendments which 
surely reflect the values to which all of us have risen our hand and 
sworn to protect.
  Today, on the anniversary of the ratification of the 14th Amendment 
to our Constitution--how ironic that we would meet this vote on this 
day--which enshrined the principle of equality for all Americans, we 
have this shameful Confederate battle flag amendment on our floor.
  This amendment would keep in place a policy that allows Confederate 
battle flags in our national parks and National Park Service 
cemeteries, a symbol, as my colleague Jim Clyburn, the assistant leader 
and the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus and an extraordinary 
Representative in South Carolina, said yesterday was so offensive and 
hurtful to so many millions of our fellow citizens and our fellow 
colleagues in this body.
  Even in South Carolina today, where the Confederacy was born, that 
flag is being taken down from the State capitol grounds after both 
Republican-controlled houses of that State's assembly voted to remove 
it.
  Certainly--certainly--on this day we ought not to see a Republican-
led Congress move in the opposite direction. My colleagues, together, 
not as Republicans and Democrats, but as Americans deeply committed to 
the values of equality and justice and opportunity for all, we ought to 
remove that flag from our national parks, the cemeteries where our 
veterans rest and, I would say further, all public places. That 
includes the United States Capitol.
  And I support my friend Representative Thompson's resolution that 
sits now in the House Administration Committee that would remove the 
flag of Mississippi, which contains the Confederate battle flag, until 
such time as Mississippians, as South Carolinians did yesterday, make a 
statement and remove that from their flag.

[[Page 11104]]

  I urge my colleagues, my fellow Americans, the 434 of my colleagues 
that have raised their hand and sworn to protect and defend the 
Constitution of the United States of America, I urge my colleagues, let 
us do the right thing and reject this amendment and send a powerful 
message about what America truly represents: equality, justice, respect 
for one another, freedom for all.
  Let us make America--every American--proud of us this day and reject 
the amendment adopted in the dead of night.

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