Mayor mum on backing D.C. Council’s new reparations bill

The D.C. Council passed a reparations bill this week that would compensate Black Washingtonians who are descendants of slaves or have been affected by Jim Crow-era policies, but Mayor Muriel Bowser hasn’t disclosed whether she supports or opposes the legislation.

Speaking at a press event Thursday for the Capital One Arena renovation project, Ms. Bowser said she won’t commit to the legislation until she examines it. The bill calls for studying how to potentially repay “eligible African Americans.”

The proposal would make the nation’s capital the latest U.S. city to join a movement that has captivated race activists and left-leaning state legislatures while mystifying taxpayers.

The reparations movement in the U.S. has resulted in formal apologies but no direct payments to Black Americans.

The D.C. Council passed the measure unanimously and quietly, without any discussion from the 13-member body. It was one of several bills lawmakers passed before a two-week recess for Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Council member Kenyan McDuffie, the at-large independent who introduced the bill, told The Washington Times that he didn’t have time to discuss his proposal as he left the mayor’s media event downtown.

If signed into law, the measure would establish a commission to study the District’s history with slavery and other discriminatory policies that affected Black Americans in the nation’s capital.

The commission would develop reparation proposals for Black Americans and establish a payment fund.

A combination of government appropriations and private donations would fund reparations. The proposal suggests that reparations can be a payment of some kind “or other forms of redress.”

A 15-page report on the bill, released last month, commended that flexibility because it “demonstrates the profound understanding that the District’s reparation efforts must operate within the context of existing systemic racism to truly make progress toward racial equity.”

Any reparations proposal would have to be approved by a Republican-controlled Congress.

Congress has used its authority over the District to quash some of the city’s left-wing laws. Republicans led the way last year in thwarting a rewrite of the D.C. criminal code that they considered too forgiving of violent offenders.

An unpredictable political landscape brought on by President-elect Donald Trump is interfering with some of the District’s wish list items.

Billionaire technology magnate Elon Musk, a close friend of Mr. Trump and the head of a proposed commission to cut federal waste, singled out the RFK Stadium site proposal in a federal spending bill amid a torrent of X posts that criticized “pork” in the 1,500-page resolution.

Ms. Bowser said Thursday that the RFK site proposal doesn’t involve any federal dollars but hands control of the sprawling campus to the District.

A bill that openly calls for reparations could expect a similar amount of attention, if not more, from the president-elect and his advisers.

That may be why the final legislation has an obscure moniker.

The measure was introduced as the “Reparations Foundation Fund and Task Force Establishment Act of 2023.”

It has since been renamed the “Insurance Database Amendment Act of 2024.”

Enthusiasm for reparations sprang to life nationwide after Minneapolis police officers were found guilty in the 2020 death of George Floyd, a Black man.

The initial burst of energy tapered off as bold proposals were met with tepid responses from political leaders.

California’s effort has been the most concrete. Its current budget allocates $12 million for “reparations bills.”

The state has not approved direct cash payments to Black Californians despite a 2023 report recommending reparations of up to $1.2 million to eligible residents.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed a formal apology in the fall for the state’s role in “permitting the institution of slavery” but vetoed two reparations-affiliated bills.

Most significant was a measure allowing Black families to file legal claims if they believed the government took their property through a racially motivated use of eminent domain. The veto rankled ardent supporters of the movement.

“The decision is yet another example of political leaders paying lip service to reparative justice while cowering in the face of true reparative action,” the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California said in a statement to CalMatters.

San Francisco, often viewed as a bastion of liberal governance, folded its reparations committee this year after Mayor London Breed cut funding for the group to save money.

The committee’s report was celebrated on the left for its specific recommendations: $5 million payouts to eligible Black adults, eliminating personal debts and tax burdens, and letting families buy homes in the city for just $1.

The committee dissolved in January, and Ms. Breed, a Democrat, said cash-based reparations should be handled at the federal level.

Turning reparations proposals into policy can be a challenge.

A Racial Equity Impact Assessment published last year said Evanston, Illinois, and Providence, Rhode Island, are examples of how reparations can be given financially without direct cash payments.

Evanston awards $25,000 grants to specific Black residents or their descendants for property costs or home repairs. Roughly 15% of Evanston’s population is Black.

Providence used leftover federal funds from COVID-19 relief packages toward reparations-style policies.

Money goes to programs often used by Black residents, but the funds must be race-neutral to avoid lawsuits. About 13% of Providence’s population is Black.