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State of Oklahoma
Posted: Jul 02, 2020 6:47 AMUpdated: Jul 02, 2020 11:03 AM
PODCAST: Sen. Lankford Pushes for Juneteenth Federal Holiday
Tom Davis
Sen. James Lankford and a fellow Republican senator filed an amendment to a piece of legislation that would replace Columbus Day with Juneteenth as a new federal holiday.
Lankford and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, filed the amendment to Sen. John Cornyn's bipartisan bill that would make Juneteenth a federal holiday. The Republican senator from Oklahoma and Johnson say Juneteenth should replace Columbus Day as a federal holiday instead of adding a new federal holiday to the calendar.
Lankford says only 21 states recognize Columbus Day as a paid holiday. The economic cost of a single federal holiday has been estimated around $600 million for paid time off for federal employees, and a report on fiscal year 2016 calculated that the federal government pays its workforce $524 million per day.
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