Sen. Cory Booker is expected to file today in the Senate a bill to consider a national apology for slavery and to study reparations for the racial and economic discrimination that persists for African Americans.

A companion version of the HR 40 bill, which was introduced in the House by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) and first introduced in 1989 by Rep. John Conyers, is headed for the Senate today, The Grio reported.

“I am proud to introduce legislation that will finally address many of our country’s policies—rooted in a history of slavery and white supremacy—that continue to erode Black communities, perpetuate racism and implicit bias, and widen the racial wealth gap,” Booker tweeted.

I am proud to introduce legislation that will finally address many of our country's policies—rooted in a history of slavery and white supremacy—that continue to erode Black communities, perpetuate racism and implicit bias, and widen the racial wealth gap.https://t.co/5x7bdfncbZ

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) April 8, 2019

This strengthens my support for you as the nominee: keep giving us action like this to disseminate!

— Carrie A. Mirfield (@CarrieMirfield) April 8, 2019

https://twitter.com/ChrisJZullo/status/1115308930786308097

Reparations have become a key policy question in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary and won support from some leading candidates.

Not everyone thinks they’re a good idea, or that they’ll work.

Big Mistake. Pandering to the left will lose the middle. What you get in return is 4 more years of #45.
Be careful. Think this out.

— Nicholas Febrizio (@Nickfeb17) April 8, 2019

Not going to work a lot of black people in America are from different countries or first and second generation Americans ,

— Beach Boy ✭ (@MrSanDiego84) April 8, 2019

Now Booker seems to be taking the legislative lead on the issue. In the past, he has expressed frustration that the question of reparations has been “reduced to a box to check on a presidential list, when this is so much more of a serious conversation,” Booker told CNN’s Don Lemon during a recent town hall in Orangeburg, South Carolina.”Do I support legislation that is race-conscious about balancing the economic scales?” Booker said. “Not only do I support it, but I have legislation that actually does it.”

Booker has been campaigning on a proposal to address growing income equality with baby bonds, a government-run savings program for children.
His proposal involves granting every newborn American child money at birth that would grow with the child, based on the family’s income, and could be used at age 18 to launch young adults on the road to economic success.

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Booker introduced his baby bonds proposal in 2018 in the Senate and has referred to it in his stump speeches and town halls since then, but it has not played a central role, New York Times reported.

Still, Booker’s baby bonds plan has been criticized for not meeting the race-specific standard needed to qualify as reparations.

Booker’s baby bonds policy idea isn’t reparations, but it’s the closest a presidential candidate is going to get, Jordan Weissmann wrote for Slate.

We need to close the wealth gap and give every child born in the US a fair shot at the American Dream—my baby bonds proposal is a clear path forward to making that happen. https://t.co/VaU2JDUcuJ

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) April 8, 2019