Northeast

'Squad' lawmaker explains 'creative' way to pay $14 trillion in reparations: 'Moral and legal obligation'

Published

2 years ago

January 21, 2024

'Squad' lawmaker explains 'creative' way to pay trillion in reparations: 'Moral and legal obligation'

A New York lawmaker wants the federal government to push a $14 trillion reparations measure.

The measure is touted by “Squad” member Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., who wants the federal government to be held accountable for slavery and the aftermath of it, according to the Journal News.

Bowman cited the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the “space race” endeavor as examples that would make the measure feasible.

“When COVID was destroying us, we invested in the American people in a way that kept the economy afloat,” said Bowman. “The government can invest the same way in reparations without raising taxes on anyone.”

“Where did the money come from?” Bowman said. “We spent it into existence.”

The U.S. Capitol is seen lit by the morning sun. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)

REPARATIONS MAKE INCREASINGLY LESS SENSE AS AMERICA GROWS MORE DIVERSE, THINK TANK REPORT ARGUES

Bowman is among nine sponsors of H.R. 414, which seeks to establish that the U.S. has “a moral and legal obligation to provide reparations for the enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm on the lives of millions of Black people in the United States.”

The measure, introduced in 2023, would prompt the federal government to spend $14 trillion on a reparations program that would support the descendants of enslaved Black people and people of African descent. Blacks make up 12% of the population in the U.S., according to Census figures.

Reportedly, the bill comes three decades after another bill that sought to assemble a federal commission to study reparations. The measure to establish a federal commission on the impact of reparations was reintroduced this year and Bowman is a sponsor of it.

The measure could address concerns over perceived racial disparities in housing, mass incarceration and education outcomes, and, as the bill states, “eliminate the racial wealth gap that currently exists between Black and White Americans.”

Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., wants the federal government to acknowledge the harm of slavery and push a $14 trillion reparations measure to aid descendants of enslaved people. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via Getty)

Bowman added that the “incarcerated should be able to vote.”

“And I definitely think that when they come out, they should automatically be enfranchised,” he said.

SAN FRANCISCO’S PROPOSED REPARATIONS PLAN COULD COST CITY $100 BILLION: REPORT

“To put the price-tag in perspective, the federal government spent about $7 trillion in 2020, about 28% of the nation’s $25 trillion economy,” the Journal News reported.

Bowman believes that the $14 trillion could be distributed over decades.

“Who says the $14 trillion needs to be paid out in one shot?,” said Bowman.

“It might be possible for it to be paid out over five or 10 or 20 years. You could take that $333,000 and break it up into monthly checks over X amount of time. There are creative ways to do the right thing and do what needs to be done.”

The bill cites scholars’ estimates that the U.S. benefited from over 222 trillion hours of forced labor between 1619 and the end of slavery in 1865, “which would be valued at $97,000,000,000,000 today.”

“There were 246 years of free labor that produced trillions or hundreds of trillions of dollars for the U.S. economy,” said Bowman. “The economy wouldn’t exist in the way it does today if slavery hadn’t built it.”

The bill does not have any sponsors in the Senate.

Bowman’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill establishing a reparations commission to explore the best methods of providing reparations to descendants of slaves. (Riccardo Savi/Getty Images for Concordia Summit)

This is the latest attempt to push reparations on the federal level. Similar efforts are underway across the country in blue states, including San Francisco.

New York in December established a commission to explore the best methods of providing reparations to descendants of slaves.

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill for a “community commission to study the history of slavery in New York state” to examine “various forms of reparations.”

Joshua Q. Nelson is a reporter for Fox News Digital.

Joshua focuses on politics, education policy ranging from the local to the federal level, and the parental uprising in education.

Joining Fox News Digital in 2019, he previously graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Political Science and is an alum of the National Journalism Center and the Heritage Foundation’s Young Leaders Program.

Story tips can be sent to joshua.nelson@fox.com and Joshua can be followed on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Massachusetts

Markey wins Mass. Dems’ endorsement as Moulton clears ballot hurdle in Senate race

Published

8 minutes ago

June 1, 2026

Press Room

Markey wins Mass. Dems’ endorsement as Moulton clears ballot hurdle in Senate race

U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, a moderate Massachusetts Democrat, secured enough delegate support Saturday to appear on the state’s primary ballot as he challenges incumbent U.S. Sen. Ed Markey in this year’s Senate race.

Yet even though Moulton cleared a key hurdle to continue his Senate bid, it was Markey who won the party’s endorsement after winning more than 50% of the delegation’s support.

“You have a choice, you have to decide what the future looks like and what you’re going to demand,” Markey said Saturday in front of more than 4,000 delegates.

Markey won nearly 73% of the delegates’ support, while Moulton won nearly 27% of the vote. Massachusetts Democratic Party rules require statewide candidates to get at least 15% of delegate support to appear on primary ballots.

In heavily Democratic Massachusetts, the Senate primary contest is one of the most closely watched in the country as Moulton, 47, has centered his campaign on changing the status quo and demanding a generational shift in leadership.

If reelected, Markey would be 80 before his third six-year term would begin. While Markey has touted his stamina and embrace of progressive policies, questions about age have continued to swirl around Democratic candidates as they fight to take back control of Congress.

Incumbent Sen. Ed Markey is leading Rep. Seth Moulton, but if Rep. Ayanna Pressley were to enter the Democratic primary, it would change the picture, according to a new poll from Suffolk University and The Boston Globe.

In his nomination speech, Moulton argued that the Democratic Party needed more than “incremental change” and needed to start anew.

“It’s time for the generation that grew up with the internet, and will have to live for decades with AI, to lead our way through it,” Moulton said.

Moulton only addressed his opponent briefly during his nomination speech, giving a passing nod on not waiting another six years for generational change and later calling on Markey to participate in multiple debates before the September primary. Currently, the two candidates have agreed to participate in one debate later this summer.

Markey, instead, took a more critical approach by attacking Moulton’s previous comments about transgender kids and accepting corporate PAC money.

“Massachusetts deserves better than a senator who scapegoats trans kids,” Markey said to loud cheers.

In 2024, Moulton caught flak from some members of his party for saying he didn’t want his daughters playing in sports against transgender girls. Critics said Moulton echoed Trump’s talking points against allowing transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports.

Moulton has since said his intent with that statement “was to point out that, as a party, we need to be willing to have difficult conversations.”

Moulton, who enlisted in the Marines after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and served four tours of duty in Iraq, was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2014. He briefly launched a 2020 presidential campaign, but he dropped that bid after a few months.

Markey served as a Massachusetts congressman for nearly 40 years before winning the Senate seat in 2013. He fended off a challenge in 2020 from Rep. Joe Kennedy III in the Senate primary by turning to his progressive allies to overcome a challenge from a younger rival from America’s most famous political family.

The Massachusetts primary is Sept. 1.

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New Hampshire

Drivers And Passengers OK After 3 Vehicles Collide On Clinton Street In Bow

Published

43 minutes ago

June 1, 2026

Press Room

Drivers And Passengers OK After 3 Vehicles Collide On Clinton Street In Bow

BOW, NH — Bow police and fire and rescue teams were sent to a crash on Sunday afternoon, not far from a previous crash earlier this month.

At 2:30 p.m., Concord Fire Alarm reported a crash involving multiple vehicles not far from the intersection of Page Road and Clinton Street. About 10 minutes later, a battalion commander told dispatch there were three vehicles involved and two patients were being evaluated. Dispatch asked if EMTs needed a retone for an engine, and the commander said, “Yeah, why don’t you send them.”

News 603 posted a video from the crash scene on Facebook, linked here.

Just before 3 p.m., EMTs cleared the scene after reporting the patients refused transport.

The crash site was not far from a crash on May 1 that sent one driver to Concord Hospital. In July 2024, a fatal motorcycle accident, which took the life of Joseph Kasper of Weare, occured not far from the location of Sunday’s crash.

Not long after, Concord Fire and Rescue teams were sent to a downed tree on Merrimack Street by School Street.

The tree was knocked down after a small storm moved through the region around 2:45 p.m.

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New Jersey

Visits to restart at New Jersey migrant detention center | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Published

50 minutes ago

June 1, 2026

Press Room

Visits to restart at New Jersey migrant detention center | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

REUTERS/CAITLIN OCHS

People gather to continue protesting against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) outside a barrier near the Delaney Hall detention center, in Newark, New Jersey.

WASHINGTON >> New Jersey State Police closed off an area outside a Newark immigrant detention center after tensions escalated at protests over the weekend, while FBI and Homeland Security investigators were on the scene on Sunday.

After two nights with arrests of activists outside the Delaney Hall immigrant detention center, law enforcement officials have expanded the area off-limits to protesters even as the facility started allowing detainee visits to resume.

Families escorted by police will be able to visit their relatives at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, Governor Mikie Sherrill said on Sunday. That announcement came several hours after Newark Mayor Ras Baraka imposed a nightly curfew in the half-mile area surrounding the facility.

Sherrill, a Democrat, ordered state police on Friday to take control of the area around the facility after days of tense confrontations between protesters and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. State police have now secured a “broader area than just outside Delaney Hall” for safety reasons, state Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said at a Sunday news conference.

Newark and State Police have kept protesters well back of the ends of two roads in front of Delaney Hall.

The clashes pose a challenge for Sherrill’s administration, which is wary of giving the federal government grounds to justify deploying federal agents to New Jersey on a larger scale. Since returning to power in January 2025, President Donald Trump has cited protests against immigration enforcement as a rationale for sending federal law enforcement into U.S. cities.

ICE “is not a law enforcement agency we want on our streets in any way,” Sherrill told reporters on Sunday.

She also repeated her previous call for demonstrators to “bring the temperature down” by remaining peaceful. State police said they arrested three people on Saturday night during demonstrations, after detaining six protesters on Friday.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, the federal agency that oversees U.S. immigration enforcement and Delaney Hall, said in a statement on Sunday that operations will “continue as normal.”

Delaney Hall is a 1,000-bed facility operated by the private company Geo Group on behalf of ICE. Critics, including immigrant advocates, Sherrill and other Democratic politicians, have called for closing the facility, which they have described as a poorly run site with inhumane conditions.

“The situation is unacceptable,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, in a statement on Sunday morning after visiting the facility with three members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation. “Delaney Hall must be shut down immediately.”

Sherrill on Saturday said out-of-state agitators inflamed tensions at protests outside the detention center, adding the majority of protesters “want to be there peacefully.”

Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, described the level of tension related to the ICE protests as unprecedented.

“I’ve not seen my state with this level of precariousness through my entire time in elected office,” Kim told CNN’s “State of the Union” program on Sunday.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who oversees security at the nation’s airports, on Thursday threatened to curtail processing of international travelers at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport because local law enforcement in the state was not assisting federal immigration officials. The airport is a major gateway to New York City.

Closing the airport is an idea that “makes no sense,” Kim said. “That would be just shooting ourselves in the foot,” he said, in reference to restricting international travel.

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