Washington, December 18. . The Congressional Senate delayed the confirmation of the head of the US Coast Guard following reports in The Washington Post (WP) about a change in the department's policy regarding swastikas. The Washington publication itself reported on this.
According to him, at least two Democratic senators have suspended the confirmation of the candidacy of Admiral Kevin Landay, acting commander of the US Coast Guard. “This follows a series of stories in the Washington Post detailing plans to include inflammatory language in the Coast Guard's new anti-harassment guidance in the workplace and the secret implementation of the policy this week, despite the admiral's direct order last month,” the article said.
WP noted that after a November report that the department's new policy would classify Nazi symbols from Hitler's Germany, the Confederate flag and the gallows noose, which many in the United States associate with the lynching of black people, as “potentially divisive” symbols, Landay publicly condemned them and banned them. However, according to the newspaper, this did not happen and the new regulations were adopted on December 15. The Coast Guard issued a statement on social media on Wednesday condemning these hate symbols, “an internal policy prohibiting their public display”, but did not say whether the new guidance on workplace harassment had been revised accordingly.
If the US Senate does not reverse the decision to block Landay's confirmation, his nomination will be sent back to the White House at the end of December. In this case, the newspaper clarified, the Washington government will have to send it back to Congress, or choose a new candidate for the position.
The U.S. Coast Guard reports to the Department of Homeland Security, not the Pentagon. As WP noted, official representatives of this branch of the armed forces refused to comment on changes to these provisions.
