WASHINGTON — Republican leaders abruptly withdrew an environmental spending bill from the House floor on Thursday before a final vote amid protest over an amendment that would allow Confederate flags at federal cemeteries. 

The action came hours after South Carolina lawmakers voted to remove the battle flag from the state Capitol’s grounds.

Only the day before, Republicans had assented to Democratic amendments to an appropriations bill that would remove the flag from federal sites and gift shops.

But at the request of several Southern lawmakers, Republicans reversed themselves and offered an amendment to allow the flag placement. A vote on that amendment had been expected Thursday afternoon. 

The National Park Service had already begun to direct staff to remove them.

Representative G.K. Butterfield, Democrat of North Carolina and the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, took to the House floor to excoriate the move.

“Don’t Republicans understand that the Confederate flag is an insult to 40 million African-Americans and many other fair-minded Americans?” he said, directing his remarks to Representative Ken Calvert, a California Republican and the sponsor of the amendment.

House Republican leaders pulled the legislation Thursday in an effort to defuse the controversy.