1. United States
2. Ill.
3. Letter

Co-sponsor and advance H.R. 40 to the floor for a vote. This bill has been reintroduced in Congress for over three decades, and the refusal to even study reparations for the descendants of enslaved people is a failure of moral and legislative courage. H.R. 40 doesn't mandate a specific remedy — it simply establishes a commission to examine the lasting economic and social effects of slavery and systemic discrimination. That's a modest ask for an enormous wrong. The racial wealth gap in this country is not an accident. It is the direct result of centuries of stolen labor, followed by decades of redlining, exclusion from the GI Bill, and targeted disinvestment. Black families today hold roughly one-tenth the wealth of white families — a disparity that federal policy helped create and federal policy must help address. H.R. 40 is the starting point for an honest reckoning. Vote yes.