BuzzFeed News, April 15th, 2019: Kirsten Gillibrand is endorsing “actionable” steps to close the racial wealth gap
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is endorsing a set of policy proposals that leading policy experts predict would “dramatically reduce” the racial wealth divide.
The proposals laid out in a new report include some ideas Gillibrand has pushed during her presidential campaign, like postal banking and proposals for full employment. But the endorsement also marks the first time Gillibrand has formally signed onto other ideas, like American children in need receiving at birth federally administered trust accounts that appreciate in value and become accessible once they become an adult. She’s also endorsing steps detailed by the coauthors like raising taxes on the ultrarich and the creation of a commission to formally review reconciliatory reparations for slavery.
A draft of the report, titled “Ten Solutions to Bridge the Racial Wealth Divide,” will be jointly released this week by the Institute for Policy Studies and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. The platform isn’t meant to be all-encompassing, but rather a guide for “actionable” steps as the political climate shifts toward fixing long-standing, systemic economic inequality, the authors said. Gillibrand told BuzzFeed News, which received an early summary of the report, that she was “proud” that it included ideas she’s fought for.
