Legislation that would create a federal reconnaissance commission for reparations for black Americans was first passed by a house commission on Wednesday, setting a vote by the full congress if Democratic leaders choose to bring it to the house.
It was a day of many firsts for the long-standing bill known as HR 40, as it had never received a markup or a vote in committee.
Led by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee
Sheila Jackson LeeHouse Panel Approves Bill to Establish Restorative Payments Committee Race Debate Grabs Congressional Black Caucus Members After Selfie Celebrating First WH Visit in Four Years MORE (D-Texas), which after the late Rep. John Conyers
John James Conyers House Panel Approves Bill to Set Commission on Restoration Payments Suburb of Chicago Could Serve as Roadmap for Restorative Payments Obama Says Restorative Payments Are ‘Justified’ MORE (D-Mich.) Retired from Congress in 2017, the bill passed along party lines through the House Judiciary Committee.
The committee held a hearing on HR 40 in February, which brought together multiple reparative justice experts. The idea of reparations, while not new, has gained traction in recent years and the legislation currently has 176 co-sponsors in Parliament, the highest ever.
“Today, the US Congress has finally taken the kind of action against reparations that movement advocates, experts and black people have been asking for for decades,” said Dreisen Heath, a racial justice investigator for Human Rights Watch who testified at the hearing. .
“This milestone takes the nation one step closer to fully dealing with the disastrous consequences of slavery that are increasing every day for black people.”
Restorative payments remain a politically controversial issue and it is not certain that the measure will reach the House of Representatives, although there will certainly be pressure on Democrats to do so.
Leader of the majority of the house Steny Hoyer
Steny Hamilton HoyerHouse Panel Approves Bill to Establish Restitution Payments Committee Race Debate Grabs Congress Watchdog: Capitol Police Needs ‘Culture Change’ MORE (D-Md.) Did not commit to taking the bill to the floor on Wednesday, saying he was waiting to see what the judicial committee would do. In the meantime he called President Biden
Joe BidenHouse panel approves bill to establish reparations committee Democrats must file bill to expand Supreme Court Former Israeli Prime Minister advises Iran to ‘cool down’ amid nuclear threats MORE to form its own recovery panel from the White House – a process that wouldn’t force centrist Democrats to take a vote that might prove difficult.
Other Democrats, with their eyes on their districts and the small Democratic majority in Parliament, have suggested that the party should stay away from such hot-button issues while focusing on economics.
It talks about reparations as a way of resolving the inequalities that black people face in the country as a result of the enduring legacy of slavery and subsequent racial discrimination.
For example, a group of researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Lancet Commission on Reparations and Redistributive Justice published a study in November stating that reparations for black Americans would have reduced health disparities in black communities, which in turn would have reduced the effect that COVID -19 she had.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black people in the US are nearly three times as likely to be hospitalized because of COVID-19 and nearly twice as likely to die from it.
Proponents of the case also point to the worrying wealth gap between white and black people in the country.
In 2019, the median net worth of a black family was $ 24,100, while the median net worth of a white family was nearly eight times higher than that of $ 188,200.
While support for Black repairs has grown in recent years, it’s not an entirely new concept. Under the Civil Liberties Act 1988, the federal government distributed $ 20,000 direct payments to Japanese Americans interned by the federal government during World War II.
Some local and national governments have already taken steps to start the reparations process; California state lawmakers passed a bill last year similar to HR 40.
Experts in this field have emphasized that direct payments are far from the only form that reparations can take.
“The remnants of redlining, segregated schools, deliberately inadequate medical care, none of those things can be fixed by a check,” ACLU Trone Center for Justice and Equality Director Jeffery Robinson told The Hill in a previous interview. “Those things must be resolved through institutional changes.”
So far, Evanston, Illinois, passed the first country’s initial recovery program last month.
In lieu of direct payments, the initiative allocates $ 400,000 to fund a block of $ 25,000 housing grants. Eligible black residents accepted for the initiative can spend the money on mortgage, home improvement, or down payment.
Mike Lillis contributed.