The Senate unanimously passed legislation on Monday introduced by U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Tom Carper (D-DE) that excludes payments from state eugenics compensation programs from consideration in determining federal benefits.
The Treatment of Certain Payments in Eugenics Compensation Act, cosponsored by Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Mark Warner (D-VA), will aid surviving victims of eugenics who receive compensation payments by excluding the payments in determining eligibility for, or the amount of, federal public benefits, including Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, Supplemental Security Income and SSI-Disabled.
Federal benefits for eugenics victims would be reduced or unavailable without the newly passed legislation, Tillis said.
“I am proud that the Senate was able to come together to unanimously pass legislation that ensures federal laws do not unintentionally punish victims who receive eugenics compensation by preventing them from receiving the federal benefits they are entitled to,” Tillis said. “It is my hope this will further increase the public’s awareness of the horrors and injustices of state-run eugenics and sterilization programs and help persuade other states to follow the lead of North Carolina and create their own eugenics compensation programs.”
More than 60,000 Americans in 33 states were subjected to state-run eugenics and compulsory sterilization laws from the 1920s to the early 1970s. Often, victims were sterilized without their consent or knowledge.
North Carolina became the first state in the nation when it passed legislation in 2013 to create a state fund that would compensate victims of the state-run sterilization program, with more than 200 in the state awarded their first compensation payment of approximately $20,000 each in 2014.
Virginia became the second state to pass such compensation legislation earlier this year.
“People who’ve been subjected to horrifying sterilization practices as a result of misguided eugenics programs have already had to live with unfathomable loss and hardship,” Carper said. “These individuals shouldn’t be penalized for compensation funds that they have received for their suffering, especially because it can never repair the pain they’ve had to endure. I’m proud the Senate came together across party lines to approve this important effort to ensure that no person loses important federal benefits because they received this type of compensation.”