| | | | |  | | By Brakkton Booker | With help from Rishika Dugyala and Teresa Wiltz
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POLITICO Illustration/Getty Images | What up Recast family! The Republican National Committee moves to censure two GOP members of the Jan. 6 committee, President Joe Biden vows more federal help to combat gun violence in cities and the Winter Olympics are underway in Beijing. But we kick things off with a renewed push for Congress to take up the case for reparations. It was heralded as an historic achievement. After more than three decades, the legislation named after the broken promise of "40 acres and a mule" by the federal government to formerly enslaved people, H.R. 40 was approved by a House committee. Some 10 months later, the full House has yet to vote on it. More than 360 civil rights groups, policy organizations and celebrities, including actors Danny Glover, Rosario Dawson, and George Takei — who collectively call themselves the "Why We Can't Wait Coalition" — are urging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to bring the bill to the floor. "People in the U.S. are now more eager than ever to pull back the curtain on institutions to see whether they have helped to advance or stall racial progress, and those institutions include the US Congress," the letter reads. H.R. 40 calls for the creation of an expert panel to study the legacy of slavery and consider reparations for Black Americans, a political hot potato. Houston-area Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee , the bill's sponsor, says since it passed the Judiciary Committee, backers have been lobbying and garnering support for the measure. She says it's on the verge of securing enough votes to clear the House. But there are significant headwinds. As we spoke, she had just left a classified briefing on the deepening diplomatic crisis over Ukraine. There's the issue of Sen. Ben Ray Luján who is recovering from a stroke this week , raising concerns Democrats could lose their majority in the Senate. Then there's primary election season, which begins in Texas in less than a month. Still, she says, the time to act on reparations is now. ◆◆◆ THE RECAST: It's been roughly 10 months or so since H.R. 40 passed out of the Judiciary Committee. Obviously, it's still not been taken up for a full floor vote. What do you think is behind the holdup? REP. JACKSON LEE: Well, let me put it from the perspective of good news. Since 1989 … we've filed, H.R. 40, which was filed initially by [the late Michigan Democratic Rep.] John Conyers. [It] was filed right after the passage of the American Civil Liberties Act in 1988 , which provided, and rightly so, reparations for the Japanese Americans that were interned in the 1940s. So we could look at it and say that it has been that long. But I take the response in a positive way, which is, in a matter of the intensity [over] the three years when the collection of over 300 organizations have been meeting and strategizing and recognizing that now is the time. Our call to action is why we can't wait. The same message that Dr. King used as they moved forward the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act of 1965 Voting Rights Act. It was not easy. This is a success. We are grateful that we've had the time and in the course of that any number of opportunities to educate members, for them to understand that this is about repair. It is about healing.
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THE RECAST: I take your point about these 10 months being used to educate folks about the importance of this. But when I'm looking at the letter, it uses language that could be considered biting.
It talks about, "People in the U.S. are eager to pull back the curtain on institutions to see whether or not they've been helped to advance a stall of racial progress and those institutions include the U.S. Congress." It also says "… Black voters matter, but not Black lives." Are you fearful that language like this is off-putting for members of Congress who may be leery about taking up this vote?
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Subcommittee chair Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) shows a photograph from the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in February 2021. | Al Drago/Getty Images | REP. JACKSON LEE: Well, I hope that the idea of truth does not hurt. No one has taken up arms. We've only used words to express the pain that those signatories feel. We were not on the steps of the United States Capitol against the citadel of democracy on Jan. 6. We have been steadfast in educating people. And this letter captures some of the pain of those who have been involved. And they want to know that not only do Black voters matter, but the idea of our history matters. And so I'm not going to be fearful of people that I know who have a kind heart and [I know they] just want to move justice along.
|  | THE RECAST: These letters are addressed to House leadership. But President Biden, when he was a candidate, supported the idea of reparations. Since being in the White House he's been less vocal on the issue. He has issued executive orders to advance racial equity and to narrow the racial wealth gap. Do you want to see more from White House on this effort to get H.R. 40 passed? REP. JACKSON LEE: I'm glad you mentioned the commitment that President Biden and Vice President Harris have. They're less than 15 months into their administration. It hasn't been an uneventful time. We're now in the midst of discussions about issues of war and peace in Eastern Europe. So I understand that if we have begun the groundwork of wanting equity across the executive offices, the Cabinet, the agencies — that's a good step. I think we're now in a posture to get the White House to move on H.R. 40.
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President Joe Biden speaks with Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, in February 2021 in Houston. | AP Photo/Patrick Semansky | This administration is concerned about listening to the people. [It is] concerned about responding to those who can say, with all their heart, their intention, wanting change: police reform, voting rights, and HR 40 was a big element of the 2020 election, particularly among our very energetic and involved and engaged young millennials and college students and others. So my view is we're giving this opportunity to the administration to move now. I have to applaud the president for recognizing and accepting an aspect of slave history. And that is Juneteenth, which was a recognition that slaves were held two years longer than the Emancipation Proclamation. And guess what it is? The first holiday ever to acknowledge slavery in the United States. The president did that. It went with meteoric speed.
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| THE RECAST: What do you say to those who argue Black folks have advanced quite a bit. Just in the last two decades, with the election of President Obama, Kamala Harris is sitting vice president and there's a very good chance in the near future the Supreme Court could have not one, but two Black justices. Why create a study into the lingering impacts of America's original sin, when there are so many examples of Black Americans thriving? REP. JACKSON LEE: No one can match 246 years of bondage. And I do hear that. I do hear the idea that these rich African Americans are going to receive reparations — that's prejudging. H.R. 40 doesn't prejudge. What it says is that we will develop a commission and the study and we'll discern, we will decide how we deal with these very conspicuous disparities. And the numbers are stark because the amount of wealth that we have does not compensate for the vast numbers of African Americans who find themselves incarcerated, who find themselves without health care, who find themselves in schools that do not have access to broadband, laptops or books. We have to try. H.R. 40, for me, is trying.
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Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) speaks at a press conference on H.R. 40 legislation on Capitol Hill in November 2021. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images | THE RECAST: We're less than a month away from the start of the 2022 primary season, which kicks off in your state, Texas, on March 1. There's already reporting on how mail-in ballot applications are being rejected by election officials because of the recently passed voting law in the state. Are you concerned by these developments? REP. JACKSON LEE: Good question. Congressman Joaquín Castro and myself immediately jumped on it and wrote to the Department of Justice. We've asked for personnel on the ground. So we're hoping now the Department of Justice will be reviewing and intervening and providing the safety latch that we need. It is horrible, but what it does is evidence that those who fled courageously … who I hosted here in Washington, my fellow Texans, the state legislators were doing the right thing. It is a heinous and horrible denial of Constitutional rights. It is a vile denial of the exercise of one's right to vote. We're hoping that the courts, ultimately the Department of Justice, will find a way to rid us of this denial of rights of Americans who happen to be Texans.
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Rep. Sheila Lee Jackson (D-TX) speaks to television reporters in Statuary Hall at the Capitol in August 2020. | Gabriella Demczuk/Getty Images | THE RECAST: Finally, can I get your thoughts on the historic announcement later this month that President Biden will nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. REP. JACKSON LEE: Black women have struggled on. They've raised families. They've been single parents. They've been enormously powerful. And then the voices that we know, as I said, from Fannie Lou Hamer to Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman to Rosa Parks, to unnamed sisters, my mentor, Barbara Jordan, to Coretta Scott King, to Maya Angelou. But we've never been at the helm of the highest court in the land.
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Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) holds a copy of the Constitution as she speaks during a House Judiciary Committee markup hearing on the Articles of Impeachment against President Donald Trump in December 2019. | Andrew Harrer - Pool/Getty Images | And then when the president of the United States, rightly so, indicates his desire to appoint a Black woman, as Reagan desired to appoint a woman, as LBJ desired to appoint a Black person who happened to be Thurgood Marshall, then all of this unseemly language and attacks comes out. Let me be very clear, as a Black woman, I reject that definition of us. The Supreme Court is not whole without the addition of the appointment of the Natural Woman of excellence, that all of these [potential nominees] happened to be. It is timely. And we can't wait. ◆◆◆ Happy Friday y'all! Hoping you find bliss during the first weekend in February. Also geopolitics aside, Go Team USA for all our Olympians competing in the games!! Now on to some must-reads and some quick pop news items. "Dear White Staffers" — An eye-opening report from POLITICO about an anonymous Instagram account that shines a light on "longstanding problems with staff diversity, paltry pay and punishing hours into the light" for Capitol Hill staffers.
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A perfect storm of conditions has prompted aides to speak up, while hiding their identities, about the realities of a workplace that most people outside of Washington tend to see glamorized on-screen. | Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images | Lisa Cook, the president's nominee who would become the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve, is facing stiff GOP resistance, with Republicans warning about "woke" regulators. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is all in for Biden's pending pick for the Supreme Court vacancy … so long as it's Judge Michelle Childs. In other news, Spike Lee and Colin Kaepernick team up for a documentary on the former footballer. Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, AKA Poly Styrene, was an anomaly in Britain's punk scene: A woman of color with a mouthful of braces, the first to front a successful rock band. "Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché," a new documentary directed by her daughter, profiles the late rocker. We tuned into HBO Max's "The Gilded Age" for its "Downton Abbey" in Manhattan vibe, and were pleasantly surprised by its nuanced take on race in late 19th-century New York. Definitely worth a watch. If you're a lover of Min Jin Lee's "Pachinko," then you must be eagerly awaiting the Apple TV+ adaptation in March. Here's a good feature on how it will confront Japan's colonization of Korea. In case you missed some crucial D.C. news yesterday:
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| Colombia rocker Carlos Vives pays tribute to his homegirl, Shakira, and all other women hailing from the port city of Barranquilla, with a new song, "Currambera."
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| TikTok of the Day: Speaking of reparations…
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