Legislation that would create a federal commission of inquiry into compensation for black Americans was approved for the first time by a House committee on Wednesday to set up a vote by the full Congress if Democratic leaders elect it to bring it to the House floor.
It was a day of many firsts for the long-standing bill known as HR 40, as it had never received a draft or a committee vote.
Led by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee
Sheila Jackson LeeHouse panel approves the bill for the establishment of commission for compensation. Racial debate grabs Congress members from the black caucus after the selfie celebrating the first WH visit in four years. MORE (D-Texas), who took up HR 40’s case after the late Rep. John Conyers
John James Conyers House Panel Approves Bill for Institution of Repairs Commission Chicago suburb could serve as roadmap for repairs. Obama says compensation is MORE justified. (D-Mich.) Retired from Congress in 2017, the bill passed, according to the party’s legal committee.
The committee held a hearing on HR 40 in February, which included several expert affirmative action rights. The idea of repairs, while not new, has gained steam over the past few years, and the legislation currently has 176 co-sponsors in the House, most of them ever.
“Today, the U.S. Congress has finally taken the kind of action for compensation that movement advocates, experts and blacks have been demanding for decades,” Dreisen Heath, a human rights researcher for racial justice who testified at the trial, said in a statement. said. .
“This milestone moves the country one step closer to the comprehensive settlement of the disastrous consequences of slavery that have been put together for black people every day.”
Repairs remain a politically controversial issue, and it is not certain that the measure will reach the House floor, although there will certainly be pressure on Democrats to do so.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer
Steny Hamilton HoyerHouse panel approves bill to set up commission for compensation Racial debate seizes Congress Watchdog: Capitol police need ‘culture change’ MORE (D-Md.) On Wednesday did not commit to bringing the bill to the floor and said he was waiting to see what the legal committee would do. Meanwhile, he appealed President Biden
Joe BidenHouse panel approves bill to set up commission for compensation Democrats present bill to expand Supreme Court Former Israeli prime minister advises Iran to ‘cool down’ amid nuclear threats to form its own White House Remuneration Panel – a process that will not force any centrist Democrats to take a difficult vote.
Other Democrats, looking at their districts and the slim Democratic majority in the House, have suggested that the party stay away from such issues with buttons while focusing on economics.
Repairs are discussed as a way to resolve the differences facing black people in the country due to the continuing legacy of slavery and subsequent racial discrimination.
For example, a group of researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Lancet Commission on Repairs and Redistributive Justice released a study in November stating that compensation for black Americans would reduce health inequalities in black communities, which in turn would have the effect reduced COVID-19 had it.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black people in the U.S. are nearly three times more likely to be hospitalized as a result of COVID-19, and they die nearly twice as often.
Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online.
In 2019, the average net worth of a black family was $ 24,100, while the average net worth of a white family was nearly eight times higher than the amount of $ 188,200.
Although support for black compensation has increased in recent years, it is not a complete concept. Under the 1988 Civil Liberties Act, the federal government paid out $ 20,000 in direct payments to Japanese Americans interned by the federal government during World War II.
Some local and state governments have already made progress in initiating the compensation process; California lawmakers passed a bill like HR 40 last year.
Experts on the subject have emphasized that direct payments are by far not the only form that compensation can take.
“The remnants of relapsed, segregated schools, medical care intentionally not good, none of these things can be resolved with a check,” Jeffery Robinson, director of ACLU Throne Center for Justice and Equality, said in a previous interview with The Hill said. “These things need to be addressed through institutional change.”
Up to this point, Evanston, Illinois, had passed the country’s first compensation program last month.
Instead of direct payments, the initiative allocates $ 400,000 to fund a $ 25,000 block of housing grants. Eligible eligible black residents accepted for the initiative will be able to set up the funds for mortgage, home improvement or repayment assistance.
Mike Lillis contributed.