Juneteenth National Independence Day Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I applaud the work by Congresswoman Jackson Lee, my colleague from Texas, on her work on this important recognition. And the gentlewoman knows that we discussed on the floor some of the concerns that I have that I share with my colleague from Louisiana.

I wish--because I do believe that there will be some division that comes out of embracing this so quickly, rather than running it through committee, by embracing a name that is going to be seen as conflicting, whether correlated with, or something with our July 4th national independence recognition.

And I understand it has been referred to as Independence Day over the years, and I understand why. I think for purposes of recognition by the United States Government, it would be my preference, and I would offer an amendment--if such things were ever done on the floor of this body. It is not, which is a sad state of affairs for the people's House. We literally never amend anything on the floor of this body.

I would offer an amendment embracing the recognition of this important day, June 19, 1865, and what that meant for the actual end to slavery, and obviously, we then passed the 13th Amendment, I believe, later that year in December. That is from memory, if that is right.

And I think it would be important, and I believe it has often been referred to in our history as Jubilee Day, as Emancipation Day, as Freedom Day, I would be amenable to any of those names. I don't believe that the title National Independence Day, I think, works. I would prefer that we just have a debate on that, and I wish we would have done that in committee.

I agree with the gentleman from Louisiana that it would have been preferred that we have that ability to do that, and that we should remember why regular order matters. As I told the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) earlier, I would prefer that we have this be unanimous, and I am afraid that it is not going to be unanimous. It will pass and it will pass overwhelmingly. It is good that we will pass it and that this day will be commemorated, as it should, as we have been commemorating it in Texas for a long time.

But it would be my strong preference, and I just wish this body--I wish we could get back to a time where we could sit down and work together when we have these minor differences, because I believe if we did, we really would probably pass this unanimously. There may be one or two that would vote ``no'' because of the 660 million, or whatever, people would say.

But we recognize the importance of the day, and I would just implore my colleagues going forward that on all of these issues, particularly where there is so much agreement, that we would find a way to come together to be able to hash out some of these differences so there could be a more unanimous belief and buy-in to what we are doing.

Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn), the Democratic whip.

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