House Democrats want to remove 11 Confederate statues from the halls of Congress, but the lead Republican overseeing them said only states could pull them out of the building.
The disagreement over whether or how to remove the statues follows nationwide protests against racial injustices and the deaths of African Americans in police custody. Protesters are pushing for the removal of symbols of racism, including monuments and public facilities named after Confederates.
Democrats are also working to strip Confederate names off U.S. military bases.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday night she requested the Joint Committee on the Library to remove nearly a dozen figures of Confederates that are located in several areas of the Capitol. The committee is made up of five Republicans and five Democrats and is currently chaired by Republican Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri. Blunt said in a statement Thursday night that the law did not permit the committee to remove the statues. Only the states that commissioned them have the authority to take them out of the building.
“Under the law, each state decides which two statues it will send to the Capitol,” Blunt said. “Several states have moved toward replacing statues and others appear headed in the same direction. This process is ongoing and encouraging. As Speaker Pelosi is undoubtedly aware, the law does not permit the Architect of the Capitol or the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library to remove a statue from the Capitol once it has been received.”
Pelosi, a California Democrat, disagrees. She told reporters Thursday she might bring up legislation that would “get rid of” the 11 statues but said she believed the Joint Committee had the authority to do it.
The national civil unrest over racial injustices, she said, has made removing the statues a priority.
“This is the perfect time for us to move these statues,” Pelosi said.
Reps. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat, and Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, reintroduced legislation on Thursday to remove the 11 statues. They first introduced the measure in 2017.
The Lee-Thompson measure would “remove all statues of individuals who voluntarily served the Confederate States of America from display in the United States Capitol.”
Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader and a California Republican, said he agreed with Blunt that only the states had the authority at this time to remove the statues.
“The states have the power to do that,” McCarthy said.
The law permits each state to designate two statues to display in the Capitol, and many were designated decades or more than a century ago.
Some states have begun the process of replacing statues deemed racist.
Florida, for example, plans to replace a statue of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith with educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune. Smith is on the list of 11 statues Democrats are seeking to eliminate.
If the House brings up the Lee-Thompson measure, history suggests it will pass with Republican support.
McCarthy joined Republicans and Democrats in a 2016 House vote to ban the display of Confederate flags at Veterans Administration facilities and cemeteries.
Also in 2016, the GOP-led House removed a state flag display from a Capitol hallway because the Mississippi flag includes a Confederate symbol.
