A bipartisan effort to make Juneteenth—the day that marks the end of slavery in the U.S—a federal holiday failed in the Senate on Wednesday after Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) blocked it from advancing, the HuffPost reports.
Johnson said making Juneteenth a holiday would cost too much. He estimated that creating another federal holiday would cost the private sector “up to $600 million a year” and it would give federal workers a paid day off that the rest of America has to pay for.”
The bill was proposed in June as one of the responses to the nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd. Calls grew for a Juneteenth holiday following nationwide Black Lives Matter protests and a reckoning with the historic economic injustices suffered by Black Americans.
While Johnson’s objection seems to have delayed the federal effort to make Juneteenth a holiday, New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo says he will push for legislation to make it a holiday throughout the state every year after declaring it a holiday for state workers this year. And starting next year, Juneteenth will be an official holiday in New York City according to NYC’s Mayor Bill DeBlasio.
