President Biden has signed a bill today passed by both houses of Congress that implements June 19 as a federal holiday described as “Juneteenth National Independence Day.” Black, Mann & Graham, L.L.P. welcomes the addition of this federal holiday to commemorate freedom and equality.
The language of the bill is important for mortgage lenders, however. The language does not specify an effective date, so it should be presumed that it is effective upon President Biden’s signature today. The bill’s text is below:
An Act
To amend title 5, United States Code, to designate Juneteenth National Independence Day as a legal public holiday.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Juneteenth National Independence Day Act”.
SEC. 2. JUNETEENTH NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE DAY AS A LEGAL PUBLIC HOLIDAY.
Section 6103(a) of title 5, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to Memorial Day the following: “Juneteenth National Independence Day, June 19.”.
Of note, the definition of business day in Regulation Z (see Section 1026.2(a)(6)) refers to all days except for Sundays and the legal public holidays referred to in 5 U.S.C. 6103(a). As June 19 will be added as a holiday in 5 U.S.C. 6103(a) today, presumably this means that June 19, 2021 will not be considered a business day under Regulation Z.
This can potentially affect the timing of disclosures such as the Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure as well as calculating the recission period of loans covered under Section 1026.23 of Regulation Z that closed yesterday and earlier today and those that will close in the near future.
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