NATION : Panel Pushes Flag Amendment Toward Floor, Advises Rejection

A divided House subcommittee pushed a constitutional amendment against flag desecration toward the House floor today with a recommendation that it be rejected.

The Civil and Constitutional Rights Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, a panel dominated by five veteran Democratic liberals, voted 5 to 3 to tell the full committee that the brief amendment should be rejected.

The full committee next Tuesday is expected to send the amendment out to the House floor for a vote that could come late next week. Subcommittee Chairman Don Edwards (D-San Jose) predicted a close vote.

Immediately after voting to report the amendment to the full committee “adversely,” the committee voted 6 to 2 for a resolution condemning flag burning and reaffirming the values protected by the Bill of Rights, a proposal senior panel Republican James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin labeled as a “patent attempt to provide political cover for people who for one reason or another oppose the constitutional amendment.”