Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas said Thursday that if elected president he would sign off on a resolution that calls for the creation of a commission to study reparations for the descendants of slaves.
The embrace of the reparations push on Capitol Hill comes after he passed on multiple opportunities to sign off on previous iterations of the legislation that former Rep. John Conyers Jr. pushed for years with little success.
Asked by Rev. Al Sharpton at a National Action Network gathering in New York whether he could be counted on if elected president to sign the bill - now being carried by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas - Mr. O’Rourke didn’t miss a beat.
“Yes,” he said. “Absolutely I would sign that into law.”
The Jackson Lee bill has won 31 co-sponsors on Capitol Hill, including Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who is also running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
Ms. Gabbard, Mr. O’Rourke and former Rep. John Delaney of Maryland - three members of the class of 2013 - did not co-sponsor the Conyers-led efforts in previous sessions of Congress.
The idea, though, has picked up speed in the 2020 presidential race.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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