On July 8, 2015, Rep. Jenny Anderson Horne of Dorchester, a member of the Charleston Delegation, made an impassioned plea against amending the bill. On second reading, the vote was later taken by the House, 93 in favor and 27 opposed. Later that night, the House passed the bill by two-thirds vote. The Senate had earlier passed the bill by two-thirds vote, on July 7, 2015.
Rep. Horne says, "As a member of the Charleston Delegation, I would like to express to you how important it is that we not amend this bill. and the reason we need not amend this bill at this time is because if we amend the bill in any form or fashion, it is going to a conference committee. It is not going to end quickly. We are going to be doing this all summer long. Let me tell you, I attended the funeral of Senator Clementa Pinckney, and the people of Charleston deserve immediate and swift removal of that flag from this grounds. We can save for another day where this flag needs to go, which flag needs to fly, or where it needs to fly, or what museum it needs to be in..." She continues,"This flag offends my friend..." [names them] continuing, "I cannot believe that we do not have the heart in this body to do something meaningful, such as take a symbol of hate off these grounds on Friday! And if any of you vote to amend, you are ensuring that this flag will fly beyond Friday. And for the widow of Senator Pinckney and his two young daughters, that would be adding insult to injury, and I will not be a part of it! And for all of these reasons, I will not vote to amend this bill today. We may visit this another session, another year, but if we amend this bill, we are telling the people of Charleston we don't care about you. We do not care that someone used this symbol of hate to slay eight innocent people who were worshiping their God. I'm sorry. I have heard enough about heritage. I have a heritage. I am a lifelong South Carolinian. I am a descendant of Jefferson Davis, OK? But that does not matter. It's not about Jenny Horne. It's about the people of South Carolina who have demanded that this symbol of hate come off of the State House grounds. And I will tell you I do know and I have it on good authority that the world is watching this debate, and there is an economic development prospect in Dorchester County that is in jeopardy because we refuse to act. We need to follow the example of the Senate, remove this flag and do it today, because this issue is not getting any better with age. Thank you."
When the vote was taken, the House approved the bill by a vote of 93 in favor to 27 opposed. The bill later received the two-thirds vote by the House,required for removal. The flag was removed on Friday, July 10, 2015 and was taken to the Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum.
