CA Senate passes 3 bills that would create reparations agency, funding

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KGO) — The California State Senate passed a trio of reparations bills Tuesday written with the intent to begin correcting the harms of slavery and decades of anti-Black racism perpetuated by the state and local governments. The bills now head to the Assembly for votes. The three bills passed Tuesday are part of a dozen-bill reparations package introduced by the California Legislative Black Caucus earlier this year. The bills build on the more than 100 proposals for reparations released by California’s Reparations Task Force in the summer of 2023 after two years of extensive and groundbreaking work. VIDEO: California’s Case for Reparations The three bills voted on Tuesday were authored by Senator Steven Bradford of Southern California. Senator Bradford also served on the state’s first-in-the-nation reparations task force. SB 1403 passed in a vote of 30-7. It would create the California Freedmen Affairs Agency which would oversee and administer any reparations measures passed by the State Senate and Assembly and signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom. The agency would be tasked with confirming that the potential recipient of reparations is a descendant of an African American enslaved in the United States or a free Black person living...