Senate

Booker introduces bill to form reparations study commission

by Jordain Carney - 04/09/19 9:28 PM ET

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) filed legislation on Tuesday that would form a commission to study the issue of granting reparations to African-Americans.

Booker had previously announced that he would be filing legislation, arguing that some of the country’s “bedrock domestic policies” have “systematically excluded blacks.”

“This bill is a way of addressing head-on the persistence of racism, white supremacy, and implicit racial bias in our country. It will bring together the best minds to study the issue and propose solutions that will finally begin to right the economic scales of past harms and make sure we are a country where all dignity and humanity is affirmed,” Booker said in a statement earlier this week.

{mosads}Booker’s office said on Tuesday evening that the Democratic senator, who is a member of the Judiciary Committee, had formally filed the bill.

Booker’s legislation mirrors a bill introduced in the House by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas). It would, if passed, form a commission to study the “impact of slavery and continuing discrimination against African-Americans” and make recommendations on reparation proposals for descendants of slaves.

The issue of reparations has become a topic of debate in the Democratic presidential primary.

Several 2020 candidates, including Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), pledged last week while speaking at the National Action Network convention that they would sign a bill forming a reparation study commission if they win the White House next year.

Tags Bernie Sanders Cory Booker Sheila Jackson Lee