Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act (Bill Text)

Thomas (Library of Congress) ^ | 1/06/09 | John Conyers

[Recovering_Democrat]

HR 40 IH

111th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 40

To acknowledge the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to examine the institution of slavery, subsequently de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

January 6, 2009

Mr. CONYERS (for himself and Mr. SCOTT of Virginia) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

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A BILL

To acknowledge the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to examine the institution of slavery, subsequently de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

(a) Findings- The Congress finds that--

(1) approximately 4,000,000 Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States and colonies that became the United States from 1619 to 1865;

(2) the institution of slavery was constitutionally and statutorily sanctioned by the Government of the United States from 1789 through 1865;

(3) the slavery that flourished in the United States constituted an immoral and inhumane deprivation of Africans' life, liberty, African citizenship rights, and cultural heritage, and denied them the fruits of their own labor; and

(4) sufficient inquiry has not been made into the effects of the institution of slavery on living African-Americans and society in the United States.

(b) Purpose- The purpose of this Act is to establish a commission to--

(1) examine the institution of slavery which existed from 1619 through 1865 within the United States and the colonies that became the United States, including the extent to which the Federal and State Governments constitutionally and statutorily supported the institution of slavery;

(2) examine de jure and de facto discrimination against freed slaves and their descendants from the end of the Civil War to the present, including economic, political, and social discrimination;

(3) examine the lingering negative effects of the institution of slavery and the discrimination described in paragraph (2) on living African-Americans and on society in the United States;

(4) recommend appropriate ways to educate the American public of the Commission's findings;

(5) recommend appropriate remedies in consideration of the Commission's findings on the matters described in paragraphs (1) and (2); and

(6) submit to the Congress the results of such examination, together with such recommendations.

SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT AND DUTIES.

(a) Establishment- There is established the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the `Commission').

(b) Duties- The Commission shall perform the following duties:

(1) Examine the institution of slavery which existed within the United States and the colonies that became the United States from 1619 through 1865. The Commission's examination shall include an examination of--

(A) the capture and procurement of Africans;

(B) the transport of Africans to the United States and the colonies that became the United States for the purpose of enslavement, including their treatment during transport;

(C) the sale and acquisition of Africans as chattel property in interstate and instrastate commerce; and

(D) the treatment of African slaves in the colonies and the United States, including the deprivation of their freedom, exploitation of their labor, and destruction of their culture, language, religion, and families.

(2) Examine the extent to which the Federal and State governments of the United States supported the institution of slavery in constitutional and statutory provisions, including the extent to which such governments prevented, opposed, or restricted efforts of freed African slaves to repatriate to their homeland.

(3) Examine Federal and State laws that discriminated against freed African slaves and their descendants during the period between the end of the Civil War and the present.

(4) Examine other forms of discrimination in the public and private sectors against freed African slaves and their descendants during the period between the end of the Civil War and the present.

(5) Examine the lingering negative effects of the institution of slavery and the matters described in paragraphs (1), (2), (3), and (4) on living African-Americans and on society in the United States.

(6) Recommend appropriate ways to educate the American public of the Commission's findings.

(7) Recommend appropriate remedies in consideration of the Commission's findings on the matters described in paragraphs (1), (2), (3), and (4). In making such recommendations, the Commission shall address among other issues, the following questions:

(A) Whether the Government of the United States should offer a formal apology on behalf of the people of the United States for the perpetration of gross human rights violations on African slaves and their descendants.

(B) Whether African-Americans still suffer from the lingering effects of the matters described in paragraphs (1), (2), (3), and (4).

(C) Whether, in consideration of the Commission's findings, any form of compensation to the descendants of African slaves is warranted.

(D) If the Commission finds that such compensation is warranted, what should be the amount of compensation, what form of compensation should be awarded, and who should be eligible for such compensation.

(c) Report to Congress- The Commission shall submit a written report of its findings and recommendations to the Congress not later than the date which is one year after the date of the first meeting of the Commission held pursuant to section 4(c).

SEC. 4. MEMBERSHIP.

(a) Number and Appointment- (1) The Commission shall be composed of 7 members, who shall be appointed, within 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, as follows:

(A) Three members shall be appointed by the President.

(B) Three members shall be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

(C) One member shall be appointed by the President pro tempore of the Senate.

(2) All members of the Commission shall be persons who are especially qualified to serve on the Commission by virtue of their education, training, or experience, particularly in the field of African-American studies.

(b) Terms- The term of office for members shall be for the life of the Commission. A vacancy in the Commission shall not affect the powers of the Commission, and shall be filled in the same manner in which the original appointment was made.

(c) First Meeting- The President shall call the first meeting of the Commission within 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, or within 30 days after the date on which legislation is enacted making appropriations to carry out this Act, whichever date is later.

(d) Quorum- Four members of the Commission shall constitute a quorum, but a lesser number may hold hearings.

(e) Chair and Vice Chair- The Commission shall elect a Chair and Vice Chair from among its members. The term of office of each shall be for the life of the Commission.

(f) Compensation- (1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), each member of the Commission shall receive compensation at the daily equivalent of the annual rate of basic pay payable for GS-18 of the General Schedule under section 5332 of title 5, United States Code, for each day, including travel time, during which he or she is engaged in the actual performance of duties vested in the Commission.

(2) A member of the Commission who is a full-time officer or employee of the United States or a Member of Congress shall receive no additional pay, allowances, or benefits by reason of his or her service to the Commission.

(3) All members of the Commission shall be reimbursed for travel, subsistence, and other necessary expenses incurred by them in the performance of their duties to the extent authorized by chapter 57 of title 5, United States Code.

SEC. 5. POWERS OF THE COMMISSION.

(a) Hearings and Sessions- The Commission may, for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this Act, hold such hearings and sit and act at such times and at such places in the United States, and request the attendance and testimony of such witnesses and the production of such books, records, correspondence, memoranda, papers, and documents, as the Commission considers appropriate. The Commission may request the Attorney General to invoke the aid of an appropriate United States district court to require, by subpoena or otherwise, such attendance, testimony, or production.

(b) Powers of Subcommittees and Members- Any subcommittee or member of the Commission may, if authorized by the Commission, take any action which the Commission is authorized to take by this section.

(c) Obtaining Official Data- The Commission may acquire directly from the head of any department, agency, or instrumentality of the executive branch of the Government, available information which the Commission considers useful in the discharge of its duties. All departments, agencies, and instrumentalities of the executive branch of the Government shall cooperate with the Commission with respect to such information and shall furnish all information requested by the Commission to the extent permitted by law.

SEC. 6. ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS.

(a) Staff- The Commission may, without regard to section 5311(b) of title 5, United States Code, appoint and fix the compensation of such personnel as the Commission considers appropriate.

(b) Applicability of Certain Civil Service Laws- The staff of the Commission may be appointed without regard to the provisions of title 5, United States Code, governing appointments in the competitive service, and without regard to the provisions of chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53 of such title relating to classification and General Schedule pay rates, except that the compensation of any employee of the Commission may not exceed a rate equal to the annual rate of basic pay payable for GS-18 of the General Schedule under section 5332 of title 5, United States Code.

(c) Experts and Consultants- The Commission may procure the services of experts and consultants in accordance with the provisions of section 3109(b) of title 5, United States Code, but at rates for individuals not to exceed the daily equivalent of the highest rate payable under section 5332 of such title.

(d) Administrative Support Services- The Commission may enter into agreements with the Administrator of General Services for procurement of financial and administrative services necessary for the discharge of the duties of the Commission. Payment for such services shall be made by reimbursement from funds of the Commission in such amounts as may be agreed upon by the Chairman of the Commission and the Administrator.

(e) Contracts- The Commission may--

(1) procure supplies, services, and property by contract in accordance with applicable laws and regulations and to the extent or in such amounts as are provided in appropriations Acts; and

(2) enter into contracts with departments, agencies, and instrumentalities of the Federal Government, State agencies, and private firms, institutions, and agencies, for the conduct of research or surveys, the preparation of reports, and other activities necessary for the discharge of the duties of the Commission, to the extent or in such amounts as are provided in appropriations Acts.

SEC. 7. TERMINATION.

The Commission shall terminate 90 days after the date on which the Commission submits its report to the Congress under section 3(c).

SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

To carry out the provisions of this Act, there are authorized to be appropriated $8,000,000.

[Recovering_Democrat]

(7) Recommend... (C) Whether, in consideration of the Commission's findings, any form of compensation to the descendants of African slaves is warranted.

(D) If the Commission finds that such compensation is warranted, what should be the amount of compensation, what form of compensation should be awarded, and who should be eligible for such compensation.

CONYERS AND SCOTT ARE WAY OFF BASE HERE. WAY WAY WAY OFF BASE.

[Robert A. Cook, PE]

You knew this was coming.

[Names Ash Housewares]

Reparations on top of the reparative hand outs already?
LOL What of people descended from both slave and master?????? how does that work?

[sauropod]

I’m getting sick of this scat.

These bastards are shoving a whole lot of bad bills through CONgress right now. This one. S45. S22. LOST treaty.

Time to mount up and ride to the fight!

[Rumplemeyer]

Most Congressmen and Senators know voting this into law would term limit themselves.

[a real Sheila]

Hmmmm.
What about light skinned and mulatos?
Will they only get half?
Will darker folks get more money since they may be a higher percentage black?
How will one prove his or her blackness?
What about white folks who DO have some black in their ancestry? Will there be DNA testing?
I want my pie!

[Post Toasties]

The only fair reparations would be Democrats paying blacks reparations for owning them as slaves, and blacks paying Republicans reparations for freeing them from slavery.

[Robert A. Cook, PE]

Follow the money:

(a) Staff- The Commission may, without regard to section 5311(b) of title 5, United States Code, appoint and fix the compensation of such personnel as the Commission considers appropriate.

(b) Applicability of Certain Civil Service Laws- The staff of the Commission may be appointed without regard to the provisions of title 5, United States Code, governing appointments in the competitive service, and without regard to the provisions of chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53 of such title relating to classification and General Schedule pay rates, except that the compensation of any employee of the Commission may not exceed a rate equal to the annual rate of basic pay payable for GS-18 of the General Schedule under section 5332 of title 5, United States Code.

(c) Experts and Consultants- The Commission may procure the services of experts and consultants in accordance with the provisions of section 3109(b) of title 5, United States Code, but at rates for individuals not to exceed the daily equivalent of the highest rate payable under section 5332 of such title.

(d) Administrative Support Services- The Commission may enter into agreements with the Administrator of General Services for procurement of financial and administrative services necessary for the discharge of the duties of the Commission. Payment for such services shall be made by reimbursement from funds of the Commission in such amounts as may be agreed upon by the Chairman of the Commission and the Administrator.

(e) Contracts- The Commission may—

(1) procure supplies, services, and property by contract in accordance with applicable laws and regulations and to the extent or in such amounts as are provided in appropriations Acts; and

(2) enter into contracts with departments, agencies, and instrumentalities of the Federal Government, State agencies, and private firms, institutions, and agencies, for the conduct of research or surveys, the preparation of reports, and other activities necessary for the discharge of the duties of the Commission, to the extent or in such amounts as are provided in appropriations Acts.

[txnativegop]

I’ve got your back on this one.

[Kieri]

I want reparations for having to endure his stupid pig of a wife in the local media on a regular basis.

[NeoConfederate]

How much will 0prah get?

[Niuhuru]

Yep.

I do wonder though, if we’re clever, that we can make money off of this. Simply ask to be able to work in the study and get paid regularly.

A few weeks ago I had the wicked thought that I might submit a proposal to study the inner fundamental differences between Republicans and Democrats and their lifestyles and how it affects their decision to vote which way.

I’m saying there are plenty of economic opportunities out there, you just have to look hard for them.

[MamaLucci]

No kidding.........American Civil War 2.0

[tomkat]

Manson’ll prolly get a chuckle outta this

[sauropod]

Will put up a thread on S22. I’ll try to remember to ping you for it. ‘Pod.

[ruination]

I could have said that in four words: Gimme mo money b*****s!

[randomhero97]

Now, once I get to thinking about it I’m 1/8th Cherokee so I might be able to get a casino out of the deal. Oh, it doesn’t include the people who really got the shaft.

[OnTheDress]

I’m marking Afro-American on the 2010 census.

I want pie.

[Psycho_Bunny]

These are fighting words.

[WellyP]

My view:

If the IDIOTS in Washington pass this I think there WILL be a race war. The KKK WILL return and become much stronger. The KKK will have wide spread support, support the cult could only have dreamed of.

Race relations will not return to be anywhere where normal for another 100 years and if it gets REALLY bad a lot of people will die.

[Army Air Corps]

Gee, I wonder what the descendants of indentured servants get? Oh, that's right, bupkis.

[neverdem]

Just tell me what it says about those who captured and sold slaves in the first place. The buyer’s descendants and those who had nothing to do with slavery have been paying for it since Affirmative Action and the Great Society. Enough is enough.

[Txngal]

Well they realize too many people are paying attention to what’s going on Washington. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but as long as they keep Americans fighting amongst themselves, they can get away with taking away all of our rights.

[UCANSEE2]

Yes.

The HIGH SALARY jobs for FRIENDS OF COLOR OF THE PRESIDENT, who will in turn, donate to his campaign.

Just like the Arkansas scam where the Clintons approved government loans to ‘friends’ who never had to make any payments, who then would donate to his campaign.

[cayuga]

Reparations will be delivered 230 grains at a time.

[nobama08]

I was gonna say the same thing. No one should be surprised. What about Native Americans? Japanese? Irish? I want my reparations!

[dennisw]

Hmmmm.
What about light skinned and mulatos?
Will they only get half?
Will darker folks get more money since they may be a higher percentage black?

How about Indians who have black blood?
Do they get reparations along with their casinos?
On the East Coast there was lots of Black+Indian breeding and marriage

[Robert A. Cook, PE]

Just tell me what it says about those who captured and sold slaves in the first place.

(Er, uhm, yeah. Those who captured the slaves, who transported them across Africa, and who sold them in the first place are still in Africa. Some still selling slaves. Some who are Barack's immediate family.)

[coolbreeze]

If you can prove you’re white ancestor was an indentured servant, do you qualify? This is all crap and even most black folks know it. Gee, I bet I can print up a family tree that shows my great great great great second cousin was cavorting with Fredrick Douglas and git me a big check and a wall plaque from the NAACP.

[headstamp 2]

Sometimes you just long for the days when politicians were routinely tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail by pitchfork parties.

[Born In America]

They do not deserve sh!t. Give them 40 acres and a mule....

[USMA '71]

Most Congressmen and Senators know voting this into law would term limit themselves.

I don't think it would be a matter of being voted out at the end of their term - I would think their current terms might be hastily shortened.

[WellyP]

Hell, that is a good deal! I’ll take 40 acres and a mule ANY TIME!

[KJC1]

Best post on this thread. Follow the money, indeed.

And endless spiral, while you hear the cha-ching noise in the background. This isn’t about “rightful reparations”, if there were to be any by any definition, this is about paying the scumbags “in charge” of determining the indeterminable.

Just like scheister lawyers who run up bills by prolonging the problem instead of resolving it.

[Secret Agent Man]

The real scam is that the bailouts and the stimulus bill are part of the reparations. Look at who all is getting the money, who was specifically said would NOT be getting money, and you will see it is part of reparations.

[vetvetdoug]

How about the Irish Slaves sent to the new world from the 1600’s to as late as 1790 by the Brits? They were white and slaves sent to the Americas? Slaves....white ones...over a couple of hundred thousand....Google it...more than enough data and proof...

Oh forgetaboutit...they were white and it doesn't matter...

[hinckley buzzard]

I have been predicting it since IdiotBoy got the nom. "Economic justice" you know--at least what passes for justice if you are a turd world socialist alien.

[SootyFoot2]

My great-grandfather has already paid. He was killed at the battle of Stone’s River while serving with a company of Indiana Volunteers. His son paid by not having a father from the age of two. My father paid by having a father who did not know how to be a father.

Oh, you mean I should pay with money?????

[tbpiper]

111th CONGRESS

Thank God they're only 555 short!

[Eagle Eye]

Great way to improve race relations in America.

[tanknetter]

Something tells me that with the President getting 3 seats on the commission, and the Speaker of the House getting 3 seats on the commission, the Senate is going to be fairly displeased with the President Pro Tempore getting a single seat.

Maybe it’s because the current President Pro Tempore is the only sitting member of the US Senate to have been a member of the Klan: Kleagle Byrd?

[Claytonbridge]

Pat Buchanan does an excellent summary what has been done for African Americans.

March 21, 2008
PJB: A Brief for Whitey

By Patrick J. Buchanan

How would he pull it off? I wondered.
How would Barack explain to his press groupies why he sat silent in a pew for 20 years as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright delivered racist rants against white America for our maligning of Fidel and Gadhafi, and inventing AIDS to infect and kill black people?
How would he justify not walking out as Wright spewed his venom about “the U.S. of K.K.K. America,” and howled, “God damn America!”
My hunch was right. Barack would turn the tables.
Yes, Barack agreed, Wright’s statements were “controversial,” and “divisive,” and “racially charged,” reflecting a “distorted view of America.”
But we must understand the man in full and the black experience out of which the Rev. Wright came: 350 years of slavery and segregation.
Barack then listed black grievances and informed us what white America must do to close the racial divide and heal the country.
The “white community,” said Barack, must start “acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination — and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past — are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds … .”
And what deeds must we perform to heal ourselves and our country?
The “white community” must invest more money in black schools and communities, enforce civil rights laws, ensure fairness in the criminal justice system and provide this generation of blacks with “ladders of opportunity” that were “unavailable” to Barack’s and the Rev. Wright’s generations.
What is wrong with Barack’s prognosis and Barack’s cure?
Only this. It is the same old con, the same old shakedown that black hustlers have been running since the Kerner Commission blamed the riots in Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit and a hundred other cities on, as Nixon put it, “everybody but the rioters themselves.”
Was “white racism” really responsible for those black men looting auto dealerships and liquor stories, and burning down their own communities, as Otto Kerner said — that liberal icon until the feds put him away for bribery.
Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.
Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.
This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:
First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.
Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.
Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ’60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.
Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks — with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas — to advance black applicants over white applicants.
Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.
We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?
Barack talks about new “ladders of opportunity” for blacks.
Let him go to Altoona and Johnstown, and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for “deserving” white kids.
Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America’s fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?
Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?
As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?
Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?
We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena. And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.
Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.

[blam]

"Great way to improve race relations in America."

We've allowed 13% of the population to get too much power.

[HighlyOpinionated]

Okay, I’ll pay reparations to the first black US Citizen who can prove he or she has been enslaved in my lifetime.

Any person alive today has been enslaved in the USofA while I’ve been alive deserves a payment. $200 and a get out of jail free card.

If a black US Citizen cannot prove that he or she was enslaved, then . . . GET OVER IT.

[Loyalist]

No reparations without repatriation!

If blacks in America suffer so badly today because of their ancestors’ enslavement, surely it would only be just to let them to the homelands from which they were so cruelly uprooted.

[hinckley buzzard]

Back in the day, Tom Wolfe wrote a pair of excellent essays: Radical Chic and Mau-mauing the Flack-catchers.

They chronicled the intimidation of pathetic white liberals by "Militant" (read:thuggish) Blacks, whether crap-ass black radicals guzzling expensive wine at a soiree at Leonard Bernstein's uptown Manhattan apartment, or a Model Cities storefront where a petty bureaucrat was being menaced by the Blackstone Rangers.

This execrable reparations BS is the direct extension of the criminal mentality that inspired and formed the War on Poverty. If passed, it would indeed provide a casus belli for America to take a stand at last against socialist sedition.

[240B]

What about gays?

I was taught by the Libs that being gay is the same as being ‘black’.

I have been checking ‘African’ on all government forms for years.

And I have stopped paying my mortgage in order to qualify for a bailout. Apparently you have to be 3 months behind which is do able.
I’ll be damned if I missing out on the insane money giveaway comming out of DC lately.

You know what they say, “when in Rome...

I want my pie! (and I’m gonna spend it quick before they become like Zimbabwe dollars)

[hinckley buzzard]

Back in the day, Tom Wolfe wrote a pair of excellent essays: Radical Chic and Mau-mauing the Flack-catchers.

They chronicled the intimidation of pathetic white liberals by "Militant" (read:thuggish) Blacks, whether crap-ass black radicals guzzling expensive wine at a soiree at Leonard Bernstein's uptown Manhattan apartment, or a Model Cities storefront where a petty bureaucrat was being menaced by the Blackstone Rangers.

This execrable reparations BS is the direct extension of the criminal mentality that inspired and formed the War on Poverty. If passed, it would indeed provide a casus belli for America to take a stand at last against socialist sedition.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Reparations were paid in blood on a thousand battlefields, from Bull Run to Appomattox.

Now Repatriations might just be an interesting subject...