Bill to Create New Reparations Agency Passes Senate Judiciary Committee

A bill to create a new state agency, the California American Freedman Affairs Agency, to assist Californians with any approved reparations programs, passed in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday in an 8-1 vote, with 2 abstentions.

Senate Bill 1403, authored by Senator Steven Bradford (D-Gardena), would specifically establish the California American Freedmen Affairs Agency in state government, under the control of the secretary, who would be appointed by the Governor. SB 1403 would require the agency to implement the recommendations of the Task Force, as well as require the agency to determine how an individual’s status as a descendant would be confirmed. The bill would also require proof of an individual’s descendant status to be a qualifying criteria for benefits authorized by the state for descendants. To accomplish these goals, the bill would require the agency to be comprised of a Genealogy Office and an Office of Legal Affairs.

SB 1403 would further require the agency to oversee and monitor existing state agencies and departments tasked with engaging in direct implementation of the policies that fall within the scope of the existing state agencies and departments’ authority, including policies related to reparations.

SB 1403 is one of 14 reparations-related bills introduced this session. They are the first bills to come after the California Reparations Task Force unveiled their final list of recommendations. Originally, the Task Force had tried to recommend a plan that would have cost the state up to $800 billion. This received widespread backlash, with so many Californians from across the political spectrum being opposed to the plan that Task Force members came out and said “STOP focusing on the monetary part of the plan.” Another figure of $1.2 million given to each black resident was also scrutinized.

SB 1403 moves up

Finally, because of the severe lack of support for giving any kind of monetary compensation coming from both California residents and lawmakers alike, all cash reparations proposals were dropped. Instead, lawmakers focused on general improvement bills, many of which would come at no or little cost to the taxpayer. SB 1403, while costing some state money because of it starting a new agency, was introduced to help facilitate all, if any, reparations bills passed by the legislature and signed into law. If passed, it would only create the agency, and not implement any of the bills stemming from the Task Force’s recommendations.

“This is a commonsense measure, something that’s long overdue for California and the nation,” said Senator Bradford on Tuesday.

The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday as a result. However, the vote was 8 t0 1 with 2 abstentions, showing that even a relatively innocuous bill like SB 1403 still had opposition, possibly foreshadowing even greater opposition to more robust reparations bills this year and in future years.

“The eye is on the money,” explained Legal adviser Richard Weaver to the Globe on Tuesday. “The state is $73 billion in the red right now, on top of many lawmakers and especially residents not believing that reparations should be a thing. Anything reparations related will have the question “How much is this going to cost?”. Cash payments are already out. They are extremely unpopular, plus Newsom said he wouldn’t support them. But the cost of these programs, well, that’s more of a grey area. They aren’t direct cash payments, but they’ll cost a lot and only benefit a fraction of the population.”

“SB 1403 is only the beginning. Every single one of these bills is going to be scrutinized to hell, they’ll be looked at by everyone, and even if Newsom approves them, then comes all the legal challenges. I’d say in July look at where they are all at. SB 1403 will probably still be up, but some of the 13 others will likely be dead or held for next year. Reparations supporters need to be smart about this. The state has no money, and they need to choose programs with little to no cost.”

SB 1403 is to be heard next soon in the Senate Governmental Organization Committee.