Aggregated News
President Barack Obama signed into law Friday a Senate bill that protects sterilization victims receiving compensation payments from cutbacks in federal benefits because of those payments.
The legislation was co-authored by Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Tom Carper, D-Del.
The bill was signed into law — along with 13 other House and Senate bills — without comment from the president.
The Treatment of Certain Payments in Eugenics Compensation Act covers federal safety net programs, such as Medicaid, Supplemental Nutritional Assistance (food stamp) program, Supplemental Security Income and SSI-Disabled.
“Without this legislation, eugenics victims who receive compensation payments could see their federal benefits reduced or even have their eligibility eliminated,” the senators said in a statement.
The bill, Senate 1698, was cosponsored by Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C., Mark Warner, D-Va., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., the Democratic candidate for vice president.
Tillis has said he chose to co-author the bill as a continuation of his work as N.C. House speaker in addressing North Carolina’s dark history of supporting a state-run eugenics and compulsory sterilization law that victimized more than 7,600 men, women...