Authors defend the bill while lawsuits say Black farmer loan forgiveness is reverse discrimination.
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Two different lawsuits now challenge a USDA loan forgiveness program for farmers of color, including Black farmers, contained within in the COVID relief package advanced in the initial days of the Biden administration and Democrat-controlled Congress. While USDA and Congressional authors defend the program, the lawsuits claim it creates reverse discrimination.
The American Rescue Plan included provisions for USDA to pay up to 120% of loan balances, as of January 1, 2021, for Farm Service Agency Direct and Guaranteed Farm Loans and Farm Storage Facility Loans debt relief to any socially disadvantaged producer who has a qualifying loan with FSA. However, unlike the past use of the definition of “socially disadvantaged producers,” the latest loan forgiveness does not apply to white women. Previously, all women were included in t
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The president faces an uphill battle to get the plans through Congress amid Republican resistance.
President Joe Biden promised his Cabinet would be the most diverse in history. Recently released data revealed his progress.
After saying he wanted his administration to look like America in December last year, the 78-year-old president has mostly succeeded in his plan to diversify the executive branch, according to an analysis by Insider in February.
As the country tries to emerge from the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, Biden has installed a diverse team to forward his economic and business agenda, which includes tackling entrenched inequities.
Richard Reeve Created: April 29, 2021 10:46 PM
A group of Midwestern farmers including a Minnesota man is suing the Biden administration.
The five growers claim they re being excluded from a COVID-19 loan forgiveness program because they re white. It s very frustrating because I . it s just not right, said Jon Stevens, from Maple Grove Farms in Rock Creek. The way I understand it . when you filled out your FSA paperwork, you check anything other than white, you re good to go.
The lawsuit, filed in Green Bay, Wisconsin, says the Biden administration s American Rescue Plan provides $4 billion to forgive loans for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers who are Black, American Indian, Hispanic, Alaskan Native, Asian American or Pacific Islander.
USDA, long accused of discrimination, now leaving out white farmers
Friday, April 30, 2021 |
Chris Woodward, Billy Davis (OneNewsNow.com)
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Like many business owners, the livelihood of American farmers was impacted by the virus pandemic. So the USDA is overseeing a $4 billion loan forgiveness program with one stipulation: White farmers need not apply.
Dan Lennington, an attorney with Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, says the law firm is representing five white farmers from four Midwest states who are suing over a federal loan program that plainly states the funds are reserved for “socially disadvantaged” farmers.
According to Lennington, the loan program was included in the American Rescue Plan Act, signed by President Biden last month. It sets aside $4 billion in loan-forgiveness funds including direct payments up to 20% of the value of their loan.