Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) introduced legislation last week to create a federal commission tasked with studying and distributing land reparations to descendants of American slaves. The bill has no co-sponsors and faces near-certain defeat in the Republican-controlled House.
The legislation would establish a federal body to examine how land could be redistributed as compensation for slavery and the broken promise of “40 acres and a mule” that followed the Civil War. Thanedar’s office did not respond to questions about how the redistribution program would work in practice.
“The history of historical injustices against Black Americans by our federal government is nothing short of shameful,” Thanedar said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Formerly enslaved families were promised land as a means of securing freedom and self-sufficiency, but these promises were broken.”
The bill is one of several reparations measures Thanedar has backed in recent years. He is also an original co-sponsor of H.R. 40, a long-stalled bill to study broader reparations proposals. He also supports legislation first introduced by former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) in 2023, which would transfer an estimated $14 trillion to reparations recipients.
Bush’s legislation died in committee during the previous session. Thanedar’s new land reparations bill faces the same trajectory. Republicans have consistently opposed reparations legislation, arguing that present-day Americans should not bear financial responsibility for injustices committed more than 150 years ago, and that eligibility criteria would be impossible to define fairly.
Progressive Democrats have pushed reparations measures for years with little success, including within their own party. Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) vetoed state-level reparations commission legislation in 2025.
Thanedar has also introduced articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump and several administration figures, actions that House Democratic leadership has opposed.
