Sheila Jackson Lee says reparations bill will get a floor vote

Legislation that would establish a commission to study whether Black Americans should receive reparations for slavery will ultimately head to the House floor for a vote, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said Wednesday.

Ms. Lee, who is the lead sponsor of the bill, H.R. 40., said she has a commitment from House leadership for both a markup hearing and a floor vote.

“The work on H.R. 40 is very much an active movement, if you will,” The Texas Democrat said at a press conference with members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). “We have over 133 sponsors. The leadership in the House and Senate — the Democratic leadership — are certainly supporting this legislation.”

However, Ms. Lee was vague about a likely timetable for a full vote by Congress. She said she was working with the House Judiciary Committee on timing and promised future updates.

Ms. Lee said the bill is attracting greater attention from lawmakers since the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died while in the custody of four white Minneapolis Police Officers.

The bill would not immediately offer payments to those harmed by the legacy of racism nor does it endorse any specific form of reparations. Instead, it would create a 13-member commission to issue recommendations.

Commission members would also review historic government policies that have harmed Black Americans even after slavery was abolished, including Jim Crow laws and segregation.

The White House and both houses of Congress would appoint members to the commission, under the legislation.

“This 13-member commission established by the federal government answers the question that it is not the individual act holding slaves, it is the government’s sanction [of slavery] that denied African Americans their equality,” Ms. Lee said.

“This is the American government’s responsibility to pay her debt,” she continued.

Previous legislation aimed at studying reparations has stalled in Congress. Former Rep John Conyers, Michigan Democrat, had repeatedly introduced legislation in multiple sessions of Congress.

Sen. Cory Booker, New Jersey Democrat, introduced a companion bill in the Senate. The bill’s future is likely murkier in the GOP-controlled Senate than its counterpart in the Democrat-lead house, however.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been outspoken against paying reparations, saying no one currently alive is responsible for what he called America’s “original sin.”

“I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none of us currently living are responsible is a good idea,” the Kentucky Republican told reporters last year.

But Ms. Lee said Wednesday that the mistakes of 200 years ago have created gaps between Blacks and Whites that still reverberate today.

“As the slaves were freed there was no wealth given for their work over 200 years,” she said. “Now we’ve come to a point of enormous disparities in health care and the idea of wealth, the idea of education, the idea of disparities in youth and housing and the justice system.”