Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, today, the Committee on Rules met and reported a rule, House Resolution 479, providing for consideration of S. 475, the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, under a closed rule. The rule provides 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Oversight and Reform and one motion to recommit. Mr. Speaker, we are here today to consider an important and timely bill, S. 475, which parallels H.R. 1320 introduced by our colleague, Sheila Jackson Lee from Texas. This bill would make Juneteenth a Federal holiday. We are happy and not a little surprised to see that the Senate was able to quickly pass this bill with unanimous consent. It is not every day that one sees the Senate move more quickly than the House, and it is my hope that today the House of Representatives would be able to act with similar swiftness. Juneteenth, a portmanteau of June 19th, celebrates a seminal moment in Black American history, and it is well past time that our country recognizes the importance of this day by making it a Federal holiday. While the Emancipation Proclamation outlawed slavery in the South, and the Civil War effectively ended with the surrender of the Confederacy in April of 1865 at Appomattox, slavery did not immediately end throughout the United States. During the Civil War, many slaveholders migrated to Texas to avoid conflict and continued to hold Black Americans in bondage after the formal end of the Civil War.…”