H.R. 40: Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act
Sponsor
Ayanna Pressley
Democrat · MA-7
The reparations bill funds an investigation, not checks
Why it matters
$20 million would seat a 15-member commission with subpoena power and give it 18 months to answer two questions Congress has never settled: who would qualify for reparations, and how any payment would be calculated. The bill itself authorizes no payments to anyone.
H.R. 40 establishes a commission in the legislative branch and hands it a research assignment running from 1619 to the present: document slavery in the colonies and the United States, analyze how federal and state governments sanctioned it, and trace discriminatory laws and practices against freed people and their descendants from 1868 forward. No part of this bill pays anyone — it authorizes a study and a report.
What separates it from a think-tank exercise is enforcement power. The commission could put witnesses under oath, subpoena records, and ask a federal district court to compel anyone who refuses. It can also demand information directly from any federal agency, including confidential material, and the agency is required to furnish it.
The report is where the hard questions land. The commission must recommend how the government would offer a formal apology, how any compensation would be calculated, what form that compensation would take, and who would be eligible to receive it. It also has to recommend how the findings get taught to the public.
The bill writes its own evidentiary basis into law. Its findings cite approximately 4,000,000 people enslaved between 1619 and 1865, and name specific federal programs as discriminatory: the Federal Housing Administration's residential segregation policies, Social Security's exclusion of most African Americans during its first two decades, GI Bill benefits left to the states to administer, and labor law that permitted unions to discriminate by race. The findings also cite nearly 1,000,000 Black people incarcerated and a Black unemployment rate more than twice the White rate.
The schedule is tight on paper. Nine members are appointed within 60 days of enactment — three each by the President, the Speaker, and the Senate president pro tempore. A director is selected, then six more members drawn from civil society and reparations organizations. The chair has 45 days after that to convene the full panel, 18 months from that first meeting to deliver the report, and the commission dissolves 90 days later. Sitting members of Congress and government employees at any level are barred from serving.
Bill Progress
Latest Action · Jan 3, 2025
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
H.R. 40 Bill Summary
What H.R. 40 actually does.
A 15-member federal commission gets the assignment
H.R. 40 creates a 15-member commission in the legislative branch to examine slavery, later discrimination, and reparation proposals for African Americans, and to report its findings to Congress.
The investigation runs from 1619 to today
The commission must document slavery in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to 1865, analyze federal and state support for it, and examine discriminatory laws and practices against freed people and their descendants from 1868 to the present, including redlining, school funding gaps, and predatory lending.
Witnesses can be compelled, agencies can't say no
The commission can hold hearings, administer oaths, and issue subpoenas for testimony and documents, with federal district courts available to enforce them. Federal agencies must furnish requested information, including confidential material. A subpoena requires agreement of the chair and vice chair or a majority vote.
The report must name eligibility standards and a formula
The final report has to recommend how the government would offer a formal apology, how compensation would be calculated, what form it should take, who should be eligible, and what other forms of restitution or rehabilitation are warranted.
Eighteen months, then the commission shuts down
The report is due within 18 months of the full commission's first meeting, and the commission terminates 90 days after submitting it. The bill creates no permanent office.
Outside appointees only, from two different pools
Nine members are political appointees named by the President, the Speaker, and the Senate president pro tempore. Six are subject-matter experts selected by the director from civil society and reparations organizations and approved by the first nine. No sitting member of Congress or federal, state, or local government employee may serve.
Twenty million dollars, subject to appropriators
The bill authorizes $20,000,000 for the commission's work and caps pay: members and consultants at the Executive Schedule level IV daily rate, staff at level V. The Federal Advisory Committee Act would not apply to the commission.
Who benefits from H.R. 40?
Descendants of enslaved people waiting on a definition
The central unanswered question in every reparations debate is who would actually qualify. The commission is required to recommend eligibility standards and a method for calculating compensation, which moves the argument from principle to criteria Congress can vote on.
Researchers and archivists working on the record
Six of the 15 seats go to subject-matter experts, and the commission can pull documents from any federal agency, including confidential files normally out of reach. The product is a compiled evidentiary record, not a literature review.
Civil society and reparations organizations
The bill reserves the six expert seats for individuals from organizations that have worked on reparatory justice, giving groups outside government a formal vote on what the final recommendations say.
Teachers and the public
One of the commission's required recommendations is how to educate the American public on its findings. The bill's stated purpose includes examining how instructional materials and digital resources have been used to deny the history of slavery.
Who is affected by H.R. 40?
Federal agencies holding records
Any department, agency, board, or instrumentality of the United States must furnish requested information directly to the commission, including material of a confidential nature, which the commission is required to store securely.
Witnesses and institutions that decline to cooperate
A subpoenaed person who refuses can be ordered to appear by a federal district court, and failure to obey that order can be punished as contempt of court. The long-standing congressional contempt statutes also apply.
Members of Congress
The vote on H.R. 40 is not a vote on payments. It is a vote on creating the process that would later recommend them, and on receiving a report that names eligibility standards and a compensation method.
Appropriators
The $20,000,000 is an authorization. The commission cannot spend it, or contract for research and surveys, until appropriators provide the money in a spending bill.
Government officials who want a seat
Anyone serving in Congress or employed by federal, state, or local government is barred from membership, so the panel is composed entirely of outside appointees and experts.
Cost & Funding
Authorization
$20,000,000
- H.R. 40 authorizes $20,000,000 — the full cost of studying the question, with no money for payments of any kind.
- Spread across the roughly two years from appointment to final report, that is under $1 million a month for a 15-member panel, its staff, hearings, contracted research and surveys, and document collection.
- Pay is capped: commission members and hired consultants at the daily equivalent of Executive Schedule level IV, staff at level V.
- Authorization is not money in hand. Contracting authority is explicitly limited to the extent and amounts provided in appropriations acts.
- The commission terminates 90 days after its report, so the $20,000,000 funds a finite investigation rather than a standing agency.
HR40 Legislative Journey
House: Committee Action
Jan 3, 2025
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
About the Sponsor
Ayanna Pressley
Democrat, Massachusetts's 7th congressional district · 7 years in Congress
Committees: Oversight and Government Reform, Financial Services
View full profile →
Cosponsors (117)
All 117 cosponsors are Democrats. Cosponsors represent 36 states: Alabama, California, Colorado, and 33 more.
Alma Adams
Democrat · NC
Becca Balint
Democrat · VT
Nanette Barragán
Democrat · CA
Joyce Beatty
Democrat · OH
Donald Beyer
Democrat · VA
Sanford Bishop
Democrat · GA
Suzanne Bonamici
Democrat · OR
Shontel Brown
Democrat · OH
Julia Brownley
Democrat · CA
André Carson
Democrat · IN
Troy Carter
Democrat · LA
Ed Case
Democrat · HI
Cosponsor Coverage Map
Committee Sponsors
Judiciary Committee
13 of 44 committee members cosponsored
6 Democrats across this committee haven't cosponsored yet. Mobilize their constituents
H.R. 40 Quick Facts
- Committee
- Judiciary
- Chamber
- House
- Policy
- Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
- Introduced
- Jan 3, 2025
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Jan 3, 2025
Official Sources
The official bill page carries the full text, sponsor, 117 cosponsors, and every recorded action.
H.R. 40 sits in the House Judiciary Committee, whose chair controls whether it gets a hearing.
The existing federal civil rights commission is the closest working model for the panel H.R. 40 would create.
The bill applies this contempt statute to witnesses who refuse a commission subpoena or decline to testify.
H.R. 40 explicitly exempts the commission from the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which otherwise governs federal advisory bodies.
The bill's findings name FHA residential segregation policy as federally sanctioned discrimination the commission would examine.
The findings cite the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 as labor law that permitted unions to discriminate by race.
The findings cite the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, whose state-run administration enabled discrimination against African-American veterans.
H.R. 40 Common Questions
Does H.R. 40 pay reparations?
No. H.R. 40 spends its money on a study, not on payments. It creates a commission that would recommend who should be eligible, how compensation would be calculated, and what form it should take — and Congress would then have to pass something separate to act on any of it.
Has H.R. 40 passed?
No. Rep. Ayanna Pressley introduced it on January 3, 2025, the opening day of the 119th Congress, and it was referred to the House Judiciary Committee the same day. Nothing has happened on the record since. It has 117 cosponsors, all Democrats.
What would the H.R. 40 commission study?
Slavery in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to 1865, how federal and state governments sanctioned it, discriminatory laws and practices from 1868 to the present such as redlining and school funding gaps, and the lasting effects on living African Americans.
Who would decide who qualifies for reparations?
The commission would only recommend. Its report must propose standards for determining eligibility and a method for calculating any compensation, but Congress would still have to write those standards into law before anyone qualified for anything.
What does the $20 million in H.R. 40 pay for?
Staff, hearings, contracted research and surveys, document collection, and administration for a 15-member panel over roughly two years. It is an authorization, not a check — appropriators still have to provide the money before the commission can spend or contract.
Could the commission subpoena records?
Yes. It could take testimony under oath and subpoena documents, and if someone refuses, a federal district court can order them to comply and punish failure as contempt. Federal agencies must hand over requested information, including confidential files.
Would H.R. 40 apologize for slavery?
Not by itself. The bill requires the commission to recommend how the United States would offer a formal apology for slavery and its aftermath, but issuing that apology would be a later act of government, not something this bill does.
Who would serve on the H.R. 40 commission?
Fifteen people. Three each from the President, the House Speaker, and the Senate president pro tempore, plus six experts drawn from civil society and reparations organizations. Sitting members of Congress and any federal, state, or local government employee are barred.
Based on H.R. 40 bill text
H.R. 40 Bill Text
“To address the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery, its subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.”
Source: U.S. Government Publishing Office
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