Congress extends flag-honor protocol to D.C. mayor, matching state governors
H.R. 4013 — To amend title 4, United States Code, to permit the flag of the United States to be flown at half-staff in the event of the death of the Mayor of the District of Columbia. · Filed by Eleanor Norton (D-DC) · Introduced Jun 13, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends federal law to permit the U.S. flag to be flown at half-staff upon the death of the Mayor of the District of Columbia, a honor currently extended to governors of states and territories but not to D.C.'s mayor. The change treats the D.C. mayor equivalently to state governors for purposes of flag protocol.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole function is to extend an existing ceremonial honor (half-staff flag protocol) to a new category of official. It is a technical amendment to flag protocol law with no regulatory, financial, or substantive policy effect.
What the text implies
- Implicitly acknowledges D.C. mayor as equivalent in rank to state governors for federal ceremonial purposes, which may have symbolic weight in ongoing debates over D.C. statehood and federal recognition of D.C. governance.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill is purely ceremonial and symbolic—it confers no material benefit or cost to ordinary citizens. However, it does address a structural inequity: the D.C. mayor leads an executive branch serving 700,000+ residents but lacks the ceremonial recognition afforded to governors of smaller territories. The change is modest but reflects democratic parity.
Named in the bill
District of Columbia, Mayor of the District of Columbia, U.S. Code Title 4, State Governors, U.S. Flag Protocol
Where it stands
- Jun 13, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jun 13, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $50,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 6 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Eleanor Norton, the sponsor, reported $12,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Esri — $50,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (587 characters) on May 19, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jan 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress extends flag-honor protocol to D.C. mayor, matching state governors” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr4013 Report an error
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