The iconography of the Confederate states in the U.S. Civil War is a contested part of American historical memory. Confederate flags, statues, plaques, and similar memorials have been valued historical symbols for some Americans, but for others have symbolized oppression and discrimination. Further, Confederate symbols have sometimes been associated with violent confrontations and hate crimes in the United States, including in recent years. Recent prominent incidents in which Confederate symbols were invoked—in particular, the June 2015 shooting deaths of nine people in a historically black church in Charleston, SC, and violence at an August 2017 rally in Charlottesville, VA—have led to renewed consideration of the presence of Confederate symbols in public spaces. Some local and state governments have elected to remove Confederate statues, flags, and other symbols from places of public prominence. Congress is considering the role of Confederate symbols on federal lands and in federal programs. While no comprehensive inventory of such symbols exists, numerous federal agencies administer assets or fund activities in which Confederate memorials and references to Confederate history are present. The National Park Service (NPS, within the Department of the Interior), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the Department of the Army within the Department of Defense (DOD) all administer national cemeteries that sometimes display the Confederate flag. Many units of the National Park System are related to Civil War history and contain resources commemorating Confederate soldiers or actions. The Army has military installations named in honor of Confederate generals, and some Navy ships have historically been named after Confederate officers or battles. The U.S. Capitol complex contains works commemorating Confederate soldiers and officials, including statues in the National Statuary Hall Collection. Various federal agencies such as the General Services Administration and the Department of Transportation are connected with sites of Confederate commemoration, either on federal properties or through nonfederal activities that receive federal funding. The presence of Confederate symbols on federal lands, and at some nonfederal sites that receive federal funding, may raise multiple questions for Congress. How should differing views on the meaning of these symbols be addressed? Which symbols, if any, should be removed from federal sites, and which, if any, should be preserved for their historical or honorary significance? Should every tribute to a person who fought for the Confederacy be considered a Confederate symbol? Should federal agencies give additional attention to education and dialogue about the conflicted history of these symbols—including their role in Civil War history and in subsequent historical eras—or are current interpretive efforts adequate? How, if at all, should current practices of honoring the Confederate dead in national cemeteries be changed? To what extent, if any, should the presence of Confederate symbols at nonfederal sites affect federal funding for programs connected to these sites? This report focuses primarily on Confederate symbols administered by three federal entities—NPS, the VA, and DOD. Each of these entities manages multiple sites or programs that involve Confederate symbols. The report begins with a discussion of recent legislative proposals, and then discusses the agencies' current policies with respect to Confederate symbols, along with issues for Congress. Bills in recent Congresses have addressed Confederate symbols and their relation to federal lands and programs. The 115 th Congress is considering bills with varying provisions on Confederate commemorative works, names, and other symbols under federal jurisdiction. The 114 th Congress also considered several legislative proposals, but none were enacted in law. Of the pending proposals in the 115 th Congress, some might be relatively straightforward to implement, while others might give rise to questions about implementation. Depending on specific bill provisions, such questions could include what constitutes a Confederate symbol, how required agency actions toward Confederate symbols would be funded, whether or not a given display of a symbol would qualify as a historical or educational context, and how implementation would be affected by statutory requirements for historic preservation and other existing protections. In the 115 th Congress, H.R. 3660 , the No Federal Funding for Confederate Symbols Act, would prohibit the use of federal funds for the creation, maintenance, or display of any Confederate symbol on any federal property. The term "Confederate symbol" is defined to include Confederate battle flags, any symbols or signs that honor the Confederacy, and any monuments or statues that honor the Confederacy or its leaders or soldiers. The bill specifies that the funding prohibition would not apply if the Confederate symbol is in a museum or educational exhibit, or if the funds are being used to remove the symbol from the federal site. Additionally, H.R. 3660 would direct the Secretary of Defense to rename 10 military installations that are currently named for Confederate military leaders. H.R. 3658 , the Honoring Real Patriots Act of 2017, would require the Secretary of Defense to change the name of any military installation or other property under DOD jurisdiction that is currently named after any individual who took up arms against the United States during the American Civil War or any individual or entity that supported such efforts. H.R. 3779 would direct the Secretary of the Interior to develop a plan for the removal of the monument to Robert E. Lee at Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland. H.R. 3701 and S. 1772 would require the Architect of the Capitol to arrange for the removal from the National Statuary Hall Collection of statues of persons who voluntarily served the Confederate States of America. H.Res. 12 would express the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States can achieve a more perfect union through avoidance and abatement of government speech that promotes or displays symbols of racism, oppression, and intimidation. The resolution would express support for the Supreme Court's conclusion in Walker v. Sons of Confederate Veterans that messages on state-issued license plates constitute government speech that is not protected by the First Amendment. During House consideration of H.R. 3354 , the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill for FY2018, a number of amendments were submitted regarding Confederate symbols. These amendments would have prohibited funds from being used to create, maintain, or otherwise finance Confederate symbols, each under varying circumstances. None of these amendments were made in order by the House Committee on Rules. In the 114 th Congress, amendments to the FY2016 and FY2017 House Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bills would have addressed the display and sale of Confederate flags at NPS units, including NPS national cemeteries. H.Amdt. 592 to H.R. 2822 , the House Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill for FY2016, would have prohibited the use of funds in the bill to implement NPS policies that allow Confederate flags to be displayed at certain times in national cemeteries. An opposing amendment, H.Amdt. 651 , would have prohibited funds from being used to contravene NPS policies on Confederate flags. H.Amdt. 586 would have prohibited NPS from using funds to administer contracts with park partners that sell items in NPS gift shops displaying a Confederate flag as a stand-alone feature. H.Amdt. 606 would have prohibited funds from being used by NPS to purchase or display a Confederate flag at any of its sites, except in situations where the flag would provide historical context. None of these amendments were ultimately included in P.L. 114-113 , the Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY2016. Several similar amendments were submitted in the following year for H.R. 5538 , the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill for FY2017, but were not made in order by the House Committee on Rules. Separately, an amendment to the FY2017 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies appropriations bill addressed VA policies on display of the Confederate flag at its national cemeteries. H.Amdt. 1064 to H.R. 4974 would have prohibited funds in the bill from being used by the VA to implement its policy that permitted a Confederate flag to fly from a flagpole at certain times. The House of Representatives passed the bill as amended, but the Confederate flag provision was not included in the final omnibus appropriations legislation and did not become law. Another bill in the 114 th Congress, H.R. 3007 , would have prohibited the display of the Confederate battle flag in any VA national cemetery, but also was not enacted. H.R. 4909 , the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2017, included a provision to prohibit military departments from having Senior Reserve Officers' Training Corps units at educational institutions that displayed Confederate battle flags. The provision was included in the House-passed version of the bill but not in the enacted law, P.L. 114-328 . Also in the 114 th Congress, S. 1689 would have reduced the amounts available to a state under the federally funded National Highway Performance Program and Surface Transportation Program if the state issued a license plate containing the image of a flag of the Confederate States of America. H.Res. 341 and H.Res. 355 would have required the Speaker of the House to remove any state flag containing a portion of the Confederate battle flag from the House wing of the Capitol or any House office building, except when displayed in Member offices. H.Res. 344 would have expressed the sense of the House urging states to remove the Confederate battle flag from public locations, to discontinue the use of the flag in government speech contexts (such as on license plates), and to remove depictions of the Confederate flag from their state flags, and urging businesses to discontinue selling Confederate battle flags and related merchandise. H.Res. 342 contained provisions similar to those that were later introduced as H.Res. 12 in the 115 th Congress (see above). NPS manages over 70 units of the National Park System related to Civil War history, some of which contain works commemorating Confederate soldiers or actions. Additionally, NPS administers 14 national cemeteries that, under agency policy, may display the Confederate flag at certain times of year.