After some back and forth over competing amendments, the D.C. Council nearly unanimously voted for a ban on non-compete clauses for those making less than $150,000 a year.

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The D.C. Council has voted to rename Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the District.

The “Indigenous Peoples’ Day Emergency Declaration Act of 2019” was proposed by At-large Councilmember David Grosso, who has championed the bill for at least five years. A supermajority of councilmembers voted in favor of the legislation.

Two councilmembers—Chairman Phil Mendelson and Ward 2’s Jack Evans—voted present, meaning they abstained. (Evans cited opposition from Italian-American constituents, according to Curbed DC.)

“I put forth emergency legislation that forced a vote of the full Council to finally do the right thing by ending the celebration of the misleading narrative of Christopher Columbus on the second Monday in October,” Grosso said in a statement to WAMU.

The Council voted on two versions of the bill—emergency and temporary. Once signed by Mayor Muriel Bowser, the emergency legislation puts the measure into immediate action, without need for congressional approval or second reading, for up to 90 days.

The temporary legislation has a shelf life of 225 days and requires congressional approval—meaning that, as of, now the bill is active until around mid-May 2020. If no permanent legislation is produced by Oct. 14, 2020, the name of the holiday will return to Columbus Day.

For Grosso, this means urgently passing permanent legislation—something he’s been unable to do in the past.

“For at least five years now legislation supported by a majority of the Council that would honor our native populations and rename Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day has been stalled by Chairman Mendelson without any public input or hearing,” he said.

States across the country have passed similar action. Maine is the most recent state to rename the holiday and at least six states and 130 cities and towns have done so as well, according to The New York Times.

Columbus Day has been a federal holiday since 1934, and not everyone is on board with the changes, as evidenced by the abstentions from Mendelson and Evans.

“We still have to pass legislation to make this permanent,” Grosso said. “I hope now Chairman Mendelson will recognize the overwhelming support on the Council for this important renaming and finally hold a hearing on the permanent version of the bill.”

This story originally appeared on WAMU. 

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