Sen. Tammy Baldwin has co-sponsored a bill that would create a federal holiday marking Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the U.S., and Sen. Ron Johnson and another Republican senator proposed swapping Columbus Day with the new Juneteenth holiday, according to a Capital Times report.
Johnson’s substitute amendment puts the original bipartisan effort, which has 51 co-sponsors, on hold. Baldwin does not support Johnson’s amendment because she feels it slows the progress of getting the holiday designated while Johnson said he supports the new paid holiday but offered the amendment because it “does not put us further in debt.”
