Embassies Banned from Displaying LGBTQ Pride Flags; DEI Office Shutdown Sparks Debate

 The government spending bill Congress passed Saturday morning to avert a partial government shutdown includes a number of provisions that have left both parties complaining, from a ban on pride flags at U.S. embassies to no additional funding for border security.

 The House Office of Diversity and Inclusion will be shut down Monday as part of the government spending bill and will be replaced by the Office of Talent Management, four years after the non-partisan office was created to promote diversity in Congress.

Any flag other than the U.S. flag can no longer be flown or displayed at any U.S. State Department facilities because of a provision included in the government funding bill, reversing a 2021 State Department authorization that said U.S. embassies could display LGBTQ+ pride flags.

The flag provision is one House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., reportedly touted when lobbying members of his party the funding legislation, and one the White House said Saturday it would work to repeal.

Meanwhile, some far-right House Republicans were frustrated with the amount of immigration funding the bill entailed—including $9.5 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and $650 million in FEMA funding to help alleviate overcrowded border facilities—and felt there should be more money allocated to the influx crossing the country’s southern border.

The Human Rights Campaign criticized House Republicans for using the “appropriations process to attack LGTBQ+ people,” and noted the flag provision doesn’t limit displays of pride flags in work spaces. Meanwhile, Johnson faced backlash from members of his own party for agreeing to a package that increased government spending. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said Sunday he “wanted some sense of sanity” on spending and on the border.


$1.2 trillion. That’s how much the latest government funding package costs.


While the government spending bill was awaiting full Congressional passage, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., filed a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair threatening to oust Johnson from his speakership just months after he started the job. Green described the motion to vacate as a “warning and a pink slip,” because of her frustration with Johnson supporting the spending bill which Greene said meant he was “standing with the Democrats.”

Both the White House and the leadership on Capitol Hill supported the government funding agreement that was reached last week. Johnson broke up the fiscal year’s spending bills into two parts, one of which passed a few weeks ago and the second passed this weekend. The first smaller package included funding for the departments of Agriculture, Commerce and Transportation as well as funding for the Food and Drug Administration. The second part included funding for Homeland Security and the departments of Defense, Education and State. The spending bill will fund the government until September 30 when Congress will need to repeat a similar process.