CNN reports that the House is poised to pass a resolution today apologizing for slavery. The resolution makes no reference to reparations but in the past a congressional apology has been a predicate to reparations (in the late eighties an apology resolution preceded reparations for Japanese Americans placed in internment camps during WWII).
Rep. John Conyers annually introduces a bill to establish a reparations commission. The bill is patterned after the Japanese-American reparations bill. Conyers’ bill is expected to pass and be signed into law if Sen. Obama is elected in November.