BIDEN BACKS STUDY ON SLAVERY REPARATIONS

WASHINGTON President Joe Biden, pictured, supports a study on whether descendants of enslaved people in the United States should receive reparations, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Wednesday, as the issue was being debated on Capitol Hill.

HR-40, a bill to fund the study of “slavery and discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies,” has been floated in Congress for more than 30 years, but never taken up for a full vote.

Democratic Representative Sheila Jackson Lee reintroduced it in January. Fellow Democratic Representative Steve Cohen told a hearing Wednesday it was fitting to consider HR-40 at a time when the country is reckoning with police violence against Blacks and a pandemic that has disproportionately affected Blacks.