Members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other Democrats this week re-introduced legislation that would set up a commission to consider whether reparations should be paid to black Americans for slavery.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., has proposed the bill in each Congress for at least the last two decades.

A description of the bill said the legislation would set up a commission to both examine the possibility of reparations, but also an apology for the "racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans."

It's a response to the "fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States."

Conyers' new bill wasn't released as of Wednesday, but the version of the bill proposed last year found that 4 million blacks were enslaved in the U.S. from 1619 to 1865. It said the commission would examine the entire history of slavery, and then make recommendations on whether the U.S. government should apologize for slavery, and whether reparation payments are warranted.