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This bill is tasked with a more daunting goal than perhaps any other. Its goal is to make amends for the enslavement of African American people. It would try and do so by establishing, as its name suggests, a commission to investigate reparations.

The commission would examine:

The practice of slavery, addressing elements such as how Africans were captured, transported to, and sold in the United States;
The ways in which federal and state governments supported slavery;
The effects slavery had, and continues to have on the lives of African Americans after it ended, and any other types of discrimination that they face.

There’s plenty of information about those things though, here’s the hard part. Based on these findings, the commission would have to put forth a recommendation on how the U.S. can recompense for slavery and ongoing forms of discrimination. Specifically, it would have to determine if financial compensation to the descendants of slaves is warranted and, if so, how much it should be, and how it should be distributed.

The commission would be made up of three individuals appointed by the President, three appointed by the Speaker of the House, and one person appointed by the President pro tempore. The commission would have one year to conduct its research.

","official_title":"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.","short_title":"Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act","popular_title":null,"short_summary":"Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act\n\nEstablishes the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans to examine slavery and discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies.","summarized":true,"cost":8000000,"cost_commentary":"A CBO cost estimate is unavailable. 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Commissioning A Study To Consider Reparations for African Americans