A New York pol is poised to make Sept. 11 a federal holiday.
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) said he renewed the push in a post on Facebook Saturday.
“I am proud to work with my colleague, Rep. Mike Lawler, to advance bipartisan legislation that would make 9/11 a federal holiday,” the Long Island Republican wrote.
“It’s about making sure that our colleagues in the House realize that this isn’t something that we can only focus on in the second week of September every year,” D’Esposito added.
D’Esposito, who represents most of the Town of Hempstead and the city of Long Beach, reintroduced the bipartisan bill to designate 9/11 a national holiday and also aims for the deadliest terrorist attack in US history be taught in schools.
“And really to reflect on what happened to this great country that day and, sometimes even more importantly, who was responsible for it,” he said.
Sometimes called “Patriot Day,” Sept. 11 is a national day of remembrance, but is not an official federal holiday. Talk of designating the day began just weeks after the attacks.
Despite the lasting impact of that day, voters are evenly split on the question of whether Sept. 11 should be a federal holiday, with 47 percent believing it should and 46 percent believing it should not.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, when airliners hijacked by al Qaeda terrorists were deliberately flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The attacks precipitated invasions and prolonged occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq; the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) along with a heightened security regime at airports, major events and notable public buildings and tourist sites across the US.
If passed by Congress, it would take a year for a federal Sept. 11 holiday to be implemented.
The bill, which was introduced in March 2023, is now in the court of the House Oversight Committee.