Bill to remove Confederate statues from Capitol stalled by Missouri's Blunt
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., has blocked a bill to remove 11 statues honoring members of the Confederacy from the U.S. Capitol, saying he wanted to slow the process down.
Senate Democrats sought to pass the Confederate Monument Removal Act by unanimous consent, meaning it would clear the chamber without a formal vote as long as no legislator objected. Practically all routine Senate business is handled this way. Blunt objected, stating he wanted to consider a hearing and to understand what the states would do with the statues if they were removed.
“I’d like to ... get the opinion of people who are taking similar statues out of the building. I’d also like to find out what other states have in mind as their part of this agreement,” Blunt said. “I’d certainly like to have some time to see if we should have a hearing on this.
“It would have the effect of abandoning agreements that we have entered into with the states and the states have entered with us,” he added. “This is a more complicated arrangement than the activity on the floor today would suggest.”
The legislation, introduced by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., last week, would remove the statues of anyone who voluntarily served in the Confederacy from the National Statuary Hall Collection within 120 days of passage. The bill was previously introduced by Booker and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., in 2017 but never gained traction.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/confederate-statues-capitol-roy-blunt-cory-booker-165910098.html
Missouri was a border state i.e. a slave state that did not secede from the Union.
= new reply since forum marked as read
