D.C. City Council Stealthily Passes Bill To Create a ‘Reparations Task Force’ To Explore Giving Money to Black Residents

Washington, D.C., could soon join other cities exploring the idea of paying reparations to Black residents after the city council unanimously surreptitiously passed a bill – with an innocuous name – to create a reparations task force. The bill still needs the signature of Mayor Muriel Bowser to become law. However, another challenge facing the council is ensuring the reparations law is not blocked by Congress, which has to approve legislation in the District. Perhaps that’s why the bill was given an anodyne name: the “Insurance Database Amendment Act.”The stealthily named legislation, passed on Tuesday, would create a nine-member commission to study the impact of slavery in the nation’s capital and whether any policies in the last 150-plus years contributed to racial disparities. It also would create a record of financial documents from slaveholders, such as insurance policies taken out on slaves. Members of the commission would be tasked with developing recommendations for a model of reparations and who would qualify for them. The money for the reparations would come from a mixture of city funds and private donations. The bill was passed without much fanfare due to concerns about its uncertain future. While it was passed with unanimous approval, council members did not discuss the proposal before the vote, and its passage barely made a ripple in the news, which is part of a strategy to stay under the radar. The D.C. council chairman, Phil Mendelson, told the Washington Post after the November 5 election that the city government is trying to avoid actions that will draw Republican outrage. Part of that strategy includes re-naming legislation to take out potential buzzwords that could draw scrutiny from conservatives.On Thursday, Ms. Bowser declined to commit to signing the reparations bill into law until she had time to review it. If she does sign it, it will have to be approved by the Republican-controlled Congress, which could block it. Republican policy positions – which strongly oppose “diversity, equity and inclusion” policies – would suggest that the GOP-controlled Congress would reject the bill. Republican House members have in recent years expressed disapproval of the D.C. government and how it spends money.In a move aimed at avoiding Republicans’ attention, council members changed the name of the legislation. It was initially called the “Reparations Foundation Fund and Task Force Establishment Act.” However, after Trump won the election and Republicans flipped control of the Senate, the proposal was renamed the “Insurance Database Amendment Act.”The council member who introduced the reparations bill, Kenyan McDuffie, told the Washington Post it is not unusual for legislation to get a new name. He added that the reparations bill was one of a series of proposals that had their names changed in “consultation with my colleagues to more accurately reflect the purpose of the measures.”“It is important to recognize the ever-changing political landscape and understand when to pick a fight and when to be strategic and not pick a fight,” Mr. McDuffie said. “It’s a very delicate balance, one which the council must be cognizant of.”Washington would join a series of cities and states that have established commissions to study reparations if the bill is signed by Ms. Bowser and allowed to stand. In 2021, Evanston, Illinois, became the first American city to issue slavery reparations. By September 2024, the city had paid more than $5 million in reparations to 203 individuals. However, it is facing a lawsuit from the non-profit conservative watchdog Judicial Watch over claims that the reparations violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.California, which entered the Union as a free state, issued a formal apology for slavery in September, but it did not issue payments to Black residents. Governor Newsom said the state “accepts responsibility for the role we played in promoting, facilitating, and permitting the institution of slavery, as well as its enduring legacy of persistent racial disparities.” He noted more than 2,000 slaves were brought into the state between 1850 and 1860. Washington, D.C., which was created from two slave states – Maryland and Virginia – had slaves up until the breakout of the Civil War, though the city was sparsely populated at the time. Blacks are now the largest ethnic group in the city, but it’s unlikely there are many Black Washingtonians who are descendants of enslaved D.C. residents. The reparations committee would likely look for more recent examples of racial discrimination and try to link them to current socioeconomic disparities.Republicans in Congress have recently exercised their authority to reject legislation in D.C. In 2023, they led the charge to block a crime law that would have eliminated reduced maximum mandatory penalties and a bulk of the mandatory minimum sentences. The GOP resolution even garnered some support from Democrats, and President Biden signed it as they sought to defang accusations that their party was not tough enough on crime.

D.C. City Council Stealthily Passes Bill To Create a ‘Reparations Task Force’ To Explore Giving Money to Black Residents

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