Amid the more than seven hours of discussion and debate over the proposed state budget in the N.C. House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, perhaps the most emotionally charged centered on a provision to compensate victims of the state’s decades-long forced sterilization program.

North Carolina’s eugenics program lasted from 1929 until 1974, with the state subjecting some 7,600 citizens – many of them 10-19 years of age at the time – to sterilization because they were deemed “mentally defective or feeble-minded or otherwise unfit to reproduce.”

There are an estimated 1,700 – 2,400 living victims of eugenics who could be eligible to receive compensation under a provision in the House budget that has the backing of Republican Speaker Thom Tillis and Gov. Pat McCrory.

However, in Tuesday’s House Appropriations meeting, Rep. Larry Pittman (R-Cabarrus) put forward an amendment to remove the $10 million allocated in the spending plan that would be used to compensate living victims of state-mandated sterilization.

“Eugenics was a horrible crime and I would favor holding perpetrators of that crime responsible, if we could get to them. But I don’t believe most of those people are still around,” Pittman said. “It’s today’s taxpayers that would be paying for this and today’s taxpayers are not responsible for it, and I don’t think that’s the right thing to do.”

Pittman said offering the compensation could open a “Pandora’s box” with other people seeking compensation of some kind from the state. He also questioned if the $10 million set aside would be enough to provide payment to living eugenics victims, possibly leading to expensive litigation.

Rep. Mark Brody (R-Union) voiced his support for Pittman’s move to remove eugenics compensation from the budget.

“What I would suggest to anybody who wants to do this is, you’re always welcome to volunteer to put together a program, put together a fund, a drive of some sorts, to address these issues,” Brody said. “But I cannot in good conscience go back to the people of my district and ask them to be taxed for something that they had nothing to do with.”

While a number of Democrats voiced their opposition to Pittman’s amendment, he also faced a strong push back from many of his fellow Republicans, including Rep. Paul Stam (R-Wake), who supports awarding eugenics compensation.

“This is not about what lawmakers did 50 years ago, it’s what the state of North Carolina did to its own citizens involuntarily, to thousands of them, more than any other state and for longer than any other state,” Stam said. “These are people who are alive and to this day bear in their bodies the proof and the scars of what the state of North Carolina did to them involuntarily.”

Rep. Bob Steinburg (R-Chowan) joined Stam in opposing Pittman’s move to eliminate eugenics compensation from the budget.

“We’re involved in reforming government and part of reforming government means we need to pay attention to those things that we have done in the past,” Steinburg said. “How anyone could, with deep thought and prayer, possibly come to the conclusion that we need to just idly skip by this and forget about this stain on North Carolina’s history, to me is beyond the pale.”

Ultimately, the Pittman amendment failed by a wide margin, 22-64, leaving the compensation provision intact.

While eugenics compensation remains in the House’s spending plan for now, it faces another challenge if it reaches a conference committee with the Senate, as that chamber did not include such an allocation in its version of the budget.

If the compensation provision passes, North Carolina would be the first state to offer such payment for victims of involuntary sterilization.

Tuesday’s debate over eugenics in the House Appropriations Committee can he beard with the audio player below, courtesy of VoterRadio.com.