Tucked into a soon-to-be-released deal to fund the government is a provision that would stipulate only U.S. flags can be flown over American embassies.
Embassies sometimes fly flags like the rainbow LGBTQ+ flag to celebrate Pride Month or other occasions. The spending deal will ban this practice and any other flags from being flown overhead, a source familiar told DailyMail.com.
House Republicans and Senate Democrats have been hashing out the deal to fund six agencies of government behind closed doors ahead of a Friday deadline for a partial government shutdown.
The text of the $1 trillion deal has still not been made public, with the clock ticking to give lawmakers any time to read the bill and vote on it before Friday at 11:59 p.m.
It’s expected to pass both chambers, despite opposition from the rightward flank, and President Joe Biden is expected to sign it into law.
A rainbow pride flag is flown on a pole below the U.S. flag outside the U.S. embassy in Vienna, Austria
A U.S. flag and an LGBTQ Pride flag on the front facade of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on June 25, 2020
The deal will provide money for the Departments of Defense, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS-Education, State-Foreign Operations and the Legislative Branch.
The bill is also expected to include 12,000 new special immigrant visas for Afghan allies and a one-year extension of international HIV/AIDS prevention efforts. Republicans, meanwhile, are expected to tout funding for additional migrant detention beds.
One flashpoint to watch in the deal is funding for United Nations program that provides relief to Palestinian refugees. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNWRA) has for decades provided healthcare, food, infrastructure and education in Gaza.
However, the agency has more recently become infamous for 12 of its 30,000 employees allegedly taking part in the October 7 massacre, resulting in the murder of over a thousand Israeli civilians.
After it was alleged some UNRWA workers were Hamas sympathizers, Republicans demanded the agency be defunded.
UNRWA currently receives funding through the annual State Department funding bill, which is included in the deal Johnson released Sunday.
U.S. Embassy in Denmark getting ready for Copenhagen Pride 2017
A Black Lives Matter banner, a United States national flag and a rainbow flag are hung on the facade of the US embassy building in Seoul
‘There will not be one dime for UNRWA in any bill I support,’ Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the top Republican on the subcommittee that oversees the U.N. agency, said on the Senate floor Thursday.
His sentiment is shared by the top Senate Republican appropriator, Susan Collins of Maine.
‘We can put the funding through other agencies,’ she said recently. ‘We’re not going to support UNRWA.’
Democrats have also condemned the actions of the UNRWA employees that helped Hamas, but have reaffirmed how important the group is in delivering aid to Palestinians who need it.
‘UNRWA is a necessity in order to be able to get the massive quantity of aid that we need to get in there out,’ Rep. Laura DeLauro, D- Conn., the top Democrat appropriator in the House, said recently.
Congress previously passed a $460 billion funding deal on March 8 just hours before the money allocated for the agencies ran out.
The deal ‘secured key conservative policy victories’ in the roughly $460 billion measure despite a ‘divided government’ and rejected ‘left-wing proposals,’ Speaker Johnson said at the time.
That bill included funding for six federal agencies – including Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-VA and Transportation-HUD.
It also imposed ‘deep cuts’ to the EPA (10%), ATF (7%) and FBI (6%), which Johnson said has ‘threatened our freedoms and our economy.’
The release of the spending bills’ text gives lawmakers 72 hours to look over before a vote is likely scheduled this week.
The next votes in the House are expected at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday for legislative business.