National Republican leaders have been eager to put the debate over the Confederate flag behind them. But on the same day that South Carolina finally voted it off its state capitol grounds, the flag somehow managed to bring down a $30 billion spending bill in Congress. It’s hard to understand exactly how Republican leaders in the House allowed the divisive symbol to derail an appropriations bill for the EPA and the Department of the Interior, but by midday Thursday, they were forced to shelve a piece of legislation that just a day earlier had been set to pass—all because of the flag.