By Jorge Lopez Morales
November 3, 2029
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Members of the U.S. Commission on Reparations appeared before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform today to formally announce their request for $910 billion in direct cash payments to the descendants of enslaved Africans.
Chair Elena Kagan, a former Supreme Court justice, said the commission created financial models using existing government data and the assistance of Yale University researchers.
“We had many robust discussions and consulted a variety of experts, including those who ran truth-and-reconciliation-type processes in other countries,” she said. “Ultimately, while reparations in the form of direct payment is our core recommendation, the commission also would like this Congress to consider policies that would additionally remediate the harms of slavery and Jim Crow.”
Commission member Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland whose state has the highest percentage of Black residents post-secession, listed a range of environmental, health, educational, and criminal justice reform options that the commission recommended.
“Each of you has our proposed framework for how to quickly, yet cautiously, distribute this large cash transfer to qualifying citizens of the United States,” said Moore. “We looked to financial rescue programs in the wake of COVID-19, the Great Recession, and the 9/11 attacks.”
Kagan noted the nearly trillion-dollar request would have been larger if not for secession. In response to a question about whether citizens of the New Confederacy should be eligible, Kagan said no.
“Whatever your feelings about secession, that’s the reality we’re in. Many of the New Confederate states are still perpetrating the harms we’re trying to remediate,” she said. “I don’t believe the commission would find it fair for one country to be paying for harms in another country.”
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