#GOP senators propose replacing Columbus Day with Juneteenth as federal holiday

A pair of Republican senators have proposed replacing Columbus Day on the federal government’s list of official holidays with Juneteenth.

Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) made the proposal Wednesday as an amendment to a bill sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tx.) that would recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday.

Johnson objected to adding another day of holiday pay to the federal calendar, and viewed eliminating Columbus Day as a fair compromise.

“In response to a bipartisan effort to give federal workers another day of paid leave by designating Juneteenth a federal holiday, we have offered a counterproposal that does not put us further in debt,” Johnson said in a statement Wednesday.

“We support celebrating emancipation with a federal holiday, but believe we should eliminate a current holiday in exchange. We chose Columbus Day as a holiday that is lightly celebrated, and least disruptive to Americans’ schedules,” he continued.

Speaking to The Hill, the Wisconsin Republican and major budget hawk said he was open to choosing another holiday to replace with Juneteenth.

“I’m just saying let’s replace it with something. I chose Columbus Day just because it’s probably the most lightly celebrated and less disruptive to anybody’s schedule” to cut from the federal holiday calendar, he said.

Johnson added that he was talking to some of his colleagues about “an alternate bill” that he has.

Cornyn offered his bill in mid-June with Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and has since put it in the “hotline,” meaning that he is working to move the bill to the floor soon and pass it by unanimous consent or voice vote, The Hill reports.

He called Johnson and Lankford’s amendment “problematic,” arguing that cutting out Columbus Day “dilutes the message we’re trying to send, which is one of being respectful and honoring and remembering our history.”

“We’re working through all those things right now we just don’t have an answer right this second,” the Texas Republican, who is facing reelection this November, continued.

Juneteenth is one of America’s oldest holidays and is observed each year on June 19 to mark the official end of slavery in the US.

The day, which gets its name from combining June and 19, has long been celebrated by black Americans as a symbol of their long-awaited emancipation.

Columbus Day celebrates Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer who is credited as the first European to discover the American continent.