Lawmakers Fume Over Pride Flag Ban in Spending Bill

A policy rider that House Republicans reportedly added to the final $1 trillion spending package to avert a government shutdown would restrict the type of flags flown over State Department facilities — an issue that's riled lawmakers who are members of the LGBT community.

In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., scolded GOP lawmakers for "forcing their own discriminatory views on the men and women serving our country abroad," adding the move is "downright un-American," and that "House Republicans should be ashamed of themselves."

Under the final appropriations legislation, the appropriated funds cannot be "obligated or expended" to fly a flag over such buildings that are not the U.S. flag, the Foreign Service flag, the POW/MIA flag, the Hostage and Wrongful Detainee flag, a flag representing a state or District of Columbia at domestic locations, an Indian Tribal flag, an agency flag, or a sovereign flag of other countries, the outlet noted.

The policy rider comes in the wake of recent House GOP efforts to push back against the display of pride flags or other flags symbolic of other cultural movements like Black Lives Matter, the Washington Examiner noted.

And House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., sees the addition a victory for Republicans as he seeks support from the party to pass the expected House vote on Friday.

According to the Washington Examiner, fellow Republicans applauded when Johnson announced the flag ban at a closed-door meeting Wednesday in the wake of multiple efforts to prohibit displaying the pride flag in past years.

But Rep. Becca Balint, D-Va., described the GOP success as proving "these people have nothing freakin better to do than beat up on the LGBTQ community."

"It's just like, they're obsessed, and these people just need to live their lives," she said, the outlet reported. "My community, we just want to live our lives."

The flag rider joins other policies that fall under a larger banner of diversity, equity, and inclusion provisions that Republicans have been looking to slash or eliminate altogether.

Florida GOP Rep. Cory Mills said the flag policy points to the larger issue — that the DEI and critical race theory agenda has a "negative impact" on military academies and recruitment strategies.

"I don't think that we should be flying flags that sow division by thinking that it somehow creates some kind of inclusion," Mills told the news outlet. "I think it does the opposite."

"I just personally think that it's sad that we have to state these things," he added.

The prohibition of unapproved flags would only last until the end of the funding deal, which will expire on Sept. 30.