U.S. lawmakers are switching out state flags in favor of images of commemorative coins in a passageway beneath the Capitol building.
The decision has to do with the controversy surrounding confederate imagery. Five state flags still include symbols of the old Confederacy, and they hang as part of the current display in the Rayburn tunnel, which connects the Rayburn House Office Building to the Capitol and to the Longworth House Office Building.
The Committee on House Administration has been renovating the tunnel and announced this week it will remove the flags in exchange for images of state quarters.
"I just thought it would be better for us to put something up that unites us all, rather than divides us," said U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., Committee on House Administration chairman. "So the coins were something that we thought would be a perfect way to do this."
The display will include coins for all 50 states, D.C., and the U.S. territories. The switchover should be complete by the end of fall.
