A group of House Republicans is seeking to block federal funds from going to any state or local area that enacts policies regarding slavery reparations, Fox News reports.
The move comes as Washington, D.C., is expected to form a slavery reparations task force this year after the city council approved it in its budget last year. The proposed legislation, introduced by House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Brian Babin, is called the No Bailouts for Reparations Act.
According to Brian Babin, “That is now going to be, evidently, policy in Washington, D.C. I think this is a very timely bill to be able to push back on basically . . . virtue signaling.” Babin also said, “I think it is a privilege to be an American citizen. And certainly we have had, there was slavery in the past. There’s been indentured servitude. No American taxpayer should be on the hook to pay reparations to individuals for something that happened over 150 years ago.”
Reparations refer to measures intended to redress past wrongs. In U.S. political debate, the term generally refers to payments made to Black Americans whose families suffered from slavery.
Babin’s bill has circulated through the House for potential co-sponsors this week. He said, “I don’t think the American people want to see divisiveness. They don’t want to see special victim interest groups for something, and we fought a war over, and it’s been over for 150 years. The nation should focus on policies to promote economic opportunity for everyone, not government handouts based on ancestry.”
