US House votes to ban cemetery Confederate flags

The U.S. House has voted to ban the display of Confederate flags at historic federal cemeteries in the Deep South.

The low-profile move came late Tuesday after a brief debate on a measure funding the National Park Service, which maintains 14 national cemeteries, most of which contain graves of Civil War soldiers.

The proposal by California Democrat Jared Huffman would block the Park Service from allowing private groups from decorating the graves of southern soldiers with Confederate flags in states that commemorate Confederate Memorial Day. The cemeteries affected are the Andersonville and Vicksburg cemeteries in Georgia and Mississippi.

Pressure has mounted to ban display of the flag on state and federal property in the wake of last month's shooting at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina.