Confederate flags fly over the graves of Confederate soldiers burried in Magnolia Cemetery on July 14, 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina. | Getty House votes to bar Confederate flag from VA cemeteries Paul Ryan's willingness to bring the amendment up for a vote suggests he plans to stick by his commitment to taking tough votes on spending bills.

The GOP-led House on Thursday morning voted to bar the Confederate battle flag from flying over some federal graveyards, with Speaker Paul Ryan and his top lieutenants joining Democrats to approve the measure despite most Republicans voting against it.

Lawmakers voted 265-159 on a Democratic amendment offered by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) that would bar the Civil War symbol from being flown at cemeteries run by the Department of Veterans Affairs. It was the first time the House has cast a ballot on the divisive issue.


A similar Democratic amendment last year — offered after the racially charged shooting of Black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C. — tanked an entire appropriations bill after Southern Republicans objected to the measure. Back then, GOP leaders under Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) decided to pull the entire Interior Department spending bill rather than litigating the matter in a roll call vote that could have been used by Democrats to accuse the GOP of supporting a racially divisive symbol.

Many of those same Southern Republicans opposed the amendment Thursday. But all three top Republicans, including Ryan, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Whip Steve Scalise voted for the Democratic amendment. Ryan's willingness to even bring the amendment up for a vote marked a sharp break with past leadership strategy, and suggests he plans to stick by his commitment to taking tough votes on spending bills where the rules give members wide latitude to offer amendments.

“If you’re going to have a true open process you can’t prevent members from offering germane amendments on the floor,” a GOP leadership source said before the vote. “If you want an open process, and all of our members have said they do, that also enables Democrats to put up amendments as well.”

The source said leaders previously told lawmakers to get ready to take a vote on the matter, because should it come up, they will allow it.

Huffman unveiled the amendment to the appropriations bill funding military construction and Veterans Affairs programs a little after midnight last night. It’s the first fiscal 2017 spending bill to reach the floor.

“Over 150 years ago, slavery was abolished,” he said on the floor. “Why, in the year 2016, are we still condoning displays of this hateful symbol on our sacred national cemeteries?”

A Huffman aide said the amendment would prohibit the Confederate battle flag from being flown from flagpoles at cemeteries operated by the VA. The department currently permits the display of the flag on Memorial Day and Confederate Memorial Day. Sites operated by the Department of the Army, the Department of the Interior or state veterans cemeteries would not be affected.

Reps. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) briefly tried to offer counter-proposals, but either withdrew their amendments or were told they were out of order.

Huffman offered a similar amendment to an appropriations bill last year, not long after the killings at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. His amendment was adopted by voice vote that night, but a group of Southern Republicans rebelled the next day and threatened to sink the spending bill if the language remained. House GOP leadership pulled the measure from the floor, also derailing the appropriations process for the year.