WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) delivered remarks at a press conference celebrating Senate passage of his bipartisan bill with U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18) to designate Juneteenth a federal holiday. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s remarks are below, and video can be found here.
“This is nothing new to the state of Texas. We’ve had it a state holiday for the last forty years, but I believe that there’s no better time than the present, particularly given the strife we’ve seen, the level of distrust, for example, between law enforcement and the communities they serve, than to acknowledge our nation’s history and to learn from it.”
“Acknowledging and learning from the mistakes of the past is critical to making that progress and becoming a more perfect union.”
“I look forward to spending Juneteenth celebrating in Galveston this weekend. I believe Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, who has been my partner in the House working on this, working with all of us, will be there as well.”