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A new House GOP proposal would withhold funding from U.S. jurisdictions that celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day.
It comes after President Donald Trump signed a proclamation last week declaring Oct. 13 Columbus Day in honor of the famed explorer as well as the heritage of Italian Americans across the U.S.
“This is about every son and daughter of Italy, every Knights of Columbus, every pasta dinner on Sunday, and every communion — everything that makes our culture who we are, from Philadelphia to San Francisco,” Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
“Every Little Italy neighborhood of this country celebrates Christopher Columbus. It’s so much more than the man. It’s the people.”
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Rulli’s new bill would both reaffirm Columbus Day as a federal holiday and punish cities and states that replaced the celebration of it with Indigenous Peoples Day.
“We are not going to allow any American municipality to think that they have power over the federal government,” he said.
In 2021, then-President Joe Biden formally recognized the second Monday in October as both Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day.
The move was lauded by progressive activists and historians who saw Christopher Columbus as the harbinger of a genocide against the land’s indigenous people, millions of whom were killed amid American colonization.
But Rulli argued that Columbus Day was about honoring Italian Americans’ heritage, pointing out that part of the motivation for its founding in 1892 was the extrajudicial lynching of 11 Italian Americans in New Orleans after the death of a local police chief.
He added his legislation was not meant to undercut the significance of Native Americans — whom he said deserve their own day of significance.
“I mean, the Native Americans are some of the most amazing, dynamic cultural people that make up the fabric of America. But they need their own special day,” Rulli said. “And I would be willing to do that. I’m saying right now, I would be willing to get the indigenous people their own day, but not this day.”
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He further accused the Biden administration of undercutting the legacy of both peoples by declaring both holidays on the same day, while praising Trump for restoring Columbus Day’s original meaning.
“I don’t care what party you’re in … if you come from Italian American descent, you love what President Trump did. It was a wonderful olive branch to all Italian Americans,” Rulli said.
“By no means, no way, shape or form, is this bill meant to offend any of the indigenous people. They deserve their own day. We will get them their own day, but not Columbus Day. This has already been embedded in our fabric for 130 years,” he said.
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