House Committee votes to study compensation

WASHINGTON – Legislation creating a committee to study slavery compensation for black Americans passed a House committee on Wednesday in a historic vote – and is making its way into the full House for the first time more than three decades after it was first introduced. The legislation, HR 40, was first introduced 30 years ago, and now faces a full vote in the House of Representatives. If it passes in the House of Representatives, the measure will go to the evenly divided Senate. The House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday 25-17 to move forward with the bill, as the bill will create a 13-person committee to study the enduring effects of slavery and persistent racial discrimination throughout the nation’s history. The committee will present its findings to Congress and recommend any necessary compensation, including compensation for black Americans, and is currently sponsoring Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Legislation, or a committee to study and develop compensation proposals for African Americans. Texas. Jackson told me in a statement that the vote in the Judicial Committee was “long overdue.” For more than two decades before her, Representative John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, had run it year after year without success. More: The compensation bill got new attention amid BLM. Could other states provide a blueprint for the Downright shooting: 60 people arrested in connection with the Brooklyn Center demonstrations. Demonstrators across the country are demanding justice, and Mr Conyers told me that Conyers has entrusted her with continuing the legislation after he retires. “I took this challenge very seriously and here we are today, and I am putting it for the first time in American history. Any legislation that deals directly with the years and centuries of slavery Africans and Americans of African descent who are now descendants of these Africans told me during a hearing on Wednesday that the death of George.” Floyd, Briona Taylor, and other black Americans – including the recent death of Don Wright – have drawn attention to racial inequality in the public consciousness and renewed debate about how to address America’s history of racism toward African Americans – including reparations. Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told USA TODAY Tuesday evening that she hoped there would be an openness to real discussions on this issue and asked: “Didn’t you teach us in the last year or re-educate us about injustice, historical injustices? “Reparations – or compensation for historical crimes and wrongdoing with the aim of remedying injustice and helping certain groups of people or populations to thrive – have often been experienced in international settings.” By passing HR 40, Congress could also initiate a movement toward the national account we need to bridge Ethnic divisions. Ultimately, reparations are about respect and reconciliation – and the hope that all Americans will one day be able to march together toward a more just future, ”Jackson told me. Dean said she believes“ studying reparations is the sensible thing to do. ”According to William’s discretion. Darty, the Duke University economist who devotes his research to inequality in the context of race, and Kirsten Mullen, the historian, could cost as much as $ 12 trillion in compensation for slave Americans for the legacy of slavery and subsequent racial oppression. In the United States, compensation subsidies have been for the role of the federal government In slavery is increasing and met with skepticism.Although Congress formally apologized for the first time for slavery in 2008, HR 40 still faced opposition. Opponents of the bill described it as divisive, and argued that Americans at present should not be held responsible for Consequences of slavery, which ended with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. “No one should be compelled to pay compensation for what they have not done. Done, “Rep. Steve Shabott, a Republican from Ohio.“ Paying compensation amounts to taking money from people who did not own slaves to compensate those who were never enslaved. ”Thomas Massey, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, told USA TODAY Night Tuesday he will not vote in favor of compensation or create a committee to study the issue, but he is “looking forward” to Wednesday’s debate. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat on the committee, said before the vote that she hoped Republicans would “deal with this with open minds and open hearts.” We can approach the idea of ​​fairness, the idea of ​​justice, the idea by looking at our history in order to do what is right in the future. I hope they approach him with an open political mind. ”More: 12 graphs that show how racial disparities persist across wealth, health, education and beyond, studies have shown that the net worth of a typical white family is about 10 times greater than that of a black family. Black Americans have a home compared to other racial and ethnic groups. The black poverty rate is twice that of whites. According to an analysis by Mullen and Daretti, reparations could eliminate the wealth gap between blacks and whites within 10 years. If the legislation goes to a full vote in the House and is done Pass it, it would face slim chances of getting it passed through the Senate.When asked about the issue in 2019, then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, whose grandparents enslaved people on cotton plantations in Alabama, said at a hearing on the matter He “does not believe compensation for something” what happened 150 years ago, and neither of us is currently responsible for it, is a good idea. We have tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing Tarr legislation Yeni civil rights, through the election of an African-American president. ” Senator Cory Booker, DNJ, has introduced an accompanying version of the bill that needs the support of at least 10 Republican senators to advance into the Senate after the disruption. President Joe Biden said in February he supported a study of compensation for black Americans, as leaders of the Black Caucus in Congress met Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House for the first time on Tuesday and laid out their policy vision, which included a conversation with the administration about compensation. Contributing: Kim Helmegaard, Matthew Brown, Chelsea Cox