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- The bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday received bipartisan support in both chambers.
- In the House, all 14 votes in opposition came from GOP members.
- Some said it co-opted the Fourth of July, and others thought another federal holiday would be too costly.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
The House of Representatives, on Wednesday, passed legislation enshrining June 19, known as Juneteenth, as a federal national holiday.
On Tuesday, the Senate passed the bill with unanimous support, and today, the bill passed in the House by a 415-14 vote. All votes in opposition came from House republicans.
The day celebrates the emancipation of people who were enslaved in the US – specifically the end of slavery in Texas. Roughly 3o months after the Emancipation Proclamation, which was delivered on September 22, 1862, on June 19, 1865, Major General Gordan Granger told slaves in Galveston, Texas, that they were free.
President Joe Biden is expected to sign the bill into law in the coming days.
Many of the Republicans who opposed the bill worried the holiday would co-opt Independence Day, and until Wednesday, Sen. Ron Johnson said he opposed the bill because of the cost of giving federal employees another day off.
“This bill and this day are about freedom,” Texas Democrat Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who authored the bill, said on the floor today.
The 14 GOP members who voted against the bill’s passage were:
- Rep. Andrew Clyde
- Rep. Ronny Jackson
- Rep. Doug LaMalfa
- Rep. Tom McClintock
- Rep. Ralph Norman
- Rep. Mike Rogers
- Rep. Matt Rosendale
- Rep. Andy Biggs
- Rep. Mo Brooks
- Rep. Scott DesJarlais
- Rep. Tom Tiffany
- Rep. Thomas Massie
- Rep. Paul Gosar
- Rep. Chip Roy
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