Politics

All Flagged Out

November 20, 2001 / 12:02 PM EST / AP

A sign of America's soaring patriotism: The Capitol has run out of the flags lawmakers give their constituents.

Some 100,000 American flags are briefly flown from the roof of the Capitol each year for the purpose of providing members of Congress with souvenirs to send home to their districts. The flags come with a certificate of authenticity usually inscribed to recognize an event or person.

About 30,000 orders have not been filled, and Jim Forbes, spokesman for the House Administration Committee, said they are about six months behind schedule. Never before has the Capitol run out of flags, he said.

"We view it as a good thing because of the surge of patriotism in America," Forbes said, adding that there were about 50,000 requests for flags in the three days after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.

The committee is looking for new vendors to supplement the flags provided by the three current suppliers, Forbes said. The flags must be American-made, which further limits their availability.

"We'll fill the orders," Forbes said. "But as you can imagine, most people agree, what better place to order a flag from than Washington and your member of Congress?"

Bruce Milhans, spokesman for the architect of the Capitol, said his office, which oversees the flying of the flags, received 7,000 requests for flags in September 2000. That number doubled this September, he said.

Still, Milhans does not expect the number of flags flown in 2001 to break the record for most flags flown in a year - 154,224 during the Gulf War in 1991 - because demand did not go up until late in the year, he said.

"This year probably will not come close to 1991," he said. "Next year is another thing entirely."

The record for most flags flown in a single day over the Capitol was set on July 4, 1976, when 10,471 flags flew to celebrate the bicentennial.

Milhans said he did not know how many flags had flown so far this year.