Reparations bills face obstacles from Gov. Gavin Newsom in legislature’s final stretch

Two bills meant to help repair harms committed against Black Californians are facing headwinds in the waning days of the state’s legislative session, including from Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The measures, Senate Bills 1331 and 1403, would create a new agency and also a fund to help implement policies recommended last year by a first-in-the nation state task force on reparations.

Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, a member of the task force, wanted to bring up the bills on Wednesday. But they have stalled in the Assembly, and sources with knowledge of their status said the governor’s office has financial concerns that could affect whether or not Newsom signs them.

The Newsom Administration proposed changes to Senate Bill 1403 , which would create the California American Freedmen Affairs Agency, according to three sources familiar with the proposal. The suggested amendments would have scrapped the creation of that agency, but would set aside $6 million for the California State University system to lead a study of reparations and recommend a process for determining someone’s eligibility for them, the sources said.

Bradford rejected the administration’s proposed amendments and wants to move forward with the bill unchanged, Jerome Parra, a spokesperson for the lawmaker, said Friday evening. Newsom’s office declined to comment on the suggested changes.

The deadline to pass the bill this Legislative session is Saturday at midnight.

Assemblywoman Lori Wilson, a Suisun City Democrat and chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, said Thursday evening lawmakers were trying to confirm if they had enough votes for the measures.

“I have the votes, unless someone on the floor is actively working against me,” Bradford said Friday through a spokesperson.

Newsom’s office on Friday also declined to comment on concerns about the bills. But in June he and lawmakers approved a state budget that closed a roughly $47 billion deficit ; it included $12 million to help the state implement a series of reparations-related bills lawmakers hope will be signed this year.

So far, the legislature has passed several bills that were on a priority list unveiled by the Legislative Black Caucus In January . The two pending bills were not on the list. The group’s recommendations also did not include cash payments to descendants of enslaved people.

“There are cost pressures related to those bills,” Wilson said about the pending measures, as well as “our entire reparations package, and that’s why we have been really thoughtful about what we have put forward strategically as a priority.”

On Thursday, Department of Finance Director Joe Stephenshaw held a closed door meeting with Bradford, Wilson and staff.

After the meeting, Stephenshaw and Bradford both declined to comment when approached by a reporter from The Sacramento Bee.

Creating the California American Freedmen Affairs Agency was one of the recommendations of the task force, which spent two years studying reparations and issued lengthy reports. The new agency’s leader would be appointed by the governor and it would include offices of legal affairs and genealogy, which would establish a process to help verify eligibility for reparations.

The California Government Operations Agency estimated the agency would cost $3 to $5 million annually to run.

Lawmakers, earlier this week, passed a bill that would require the agency’s legal office to investigate cases of people who said they had property taken away from them as a result of the racially motivated use of eminent domain and help compensate people whose claims are validated. They also approved a formal apology for the role state leaders played in supporting slavery and perpetuating other harms against Black people that, if signed by the governor, would also lead to a plaque being placed in the Capitol.

Senate Bill 1331 would create a reparations and restorative justice fund to support policies approved by the Legislature and governor. The bill would allow the fund to receive money from federal and state sources and also from private donations and grants.

“Regardless of the cost, the people deserve at least a vote, and if the governor wants to veto the bills, the governor should veto the bills,” said Chris Lodgson, a lead organizer with the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, an organization that has advocated heavily for reparations policies. “It’s not a question of do we have the votes or the money, it’s do we have the will, the courage and the power and do we prioritize the descendants of people whose ancestors built this country and this state?”

Lodgson has sat in the Assembly gallery for days waiting for the bills to be voted on.

Bradford is in his last days in the Legislature due to term limits. Wilson said if his bills don’t pass before the end of the session it doesn’t mean they are dead.

“If we don’t get it across the finish line this year,” Wilson said, “trust me you will see it again. They are not gone for good.”