When Eddy Thompson was a kid, his mom assigned him books to read and write book reports on.

The books had a common theme: African American history and culture. Eddy read authors like James Baldwin and Martin Luther King Jr., men who explained the Black person’s place in American history in unflinching terms. He read the “Black Americans of Achievement’’ series, learning about accomplished, and yet little-known, African Americans such as the poet Langston Hughes, the actor Paul Robeson and the explorer Matthew Henson. Books that remain on his bookshelf to this day.

“My mom was giving me an education that I wasn’t quite getting in school,” says Eddy. “We had full semesters of Utah history, and I was a history buff, but when it came to Black history it wasn’t quite the same. We’re talking maybe three pages in the textbook.”

Rep. Blake Moore proposes a bipartisan bill to revamp the congressional budgeting system

Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, introduced a bipartisan bill Thursday alongside Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., that would reform the federal budgeting process, and give Congress the room to address the U.S. debt crisis.

The Comprehensive Congressional Budget Act of 2024 approaches the budget process as a whole, taking into account complete spending as well as revenue. It simplifies the process while allowing input from the president as well as committees in Congress.

“Reversing Washington’s debt culture has been one of my top priorities in Congress, and that starts with reforming our broken federal budget process,” said Moore, who represents Utah’s 1st District, in a press release.

Read more about the Comprehensive Congressional Budget Act of 2024.

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• Does the 2024 Republican primary start, and end, in Iowa? (Deseret News)
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