Washington flummoxed over federal Confederate flag displays

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nev speaks in Washington, Tuesday, June 28, 2016. 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. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) (The Associated Press)

The Mississippi state flag is displayed with the banners of other American states, territories and commonwealths, above a walkway in the tunnel from the Capitol Building to the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, Friday, July 1, 2016. The flag is unique among U.S. state flags as it is the only one which still depicts elements of the Confederate battle flag. 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. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) (The Associated Press)

WASHINGTON – 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.

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 House Republicans and Democrats had voted in May for the provision.