WASHINGTON (WHTC-AM/FM) – President Biden is set to sign a bill in law today (June 17, 2021) to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.
Juneteenth commemorates the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Texas and told the last enslaved people there they were free, two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth is already celebrated this coming Saturday, June 19th in 47 states and DC.
Zeeland Republican Bill Huizenga and his colleagues in the US House passed the measure by a wide margin yesterday after the Senate did the same on Tuesday.
“This is a positive thing. I fully embrace it and support it,” Huizenga said on “WHTC Morning News” during his weekly appearance today. “There’s clearly a feel in the country that we want to recognize that day, knowing that we are not perfect, in any stretch of the imagination. We still have a ways to go on our journey as a country, but this is an important milestone to mark.”
Today’s signing of the bill will mark the first new federal holiday created by Congress in nearly four decades.
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