By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Members of the U.S. House met last week to denounce a plan to expand payments to black farmers.

Republican Reps. Steve King (Iowa), Michele Bachmann (Minn.) and Bob Goodlatte (Va.) held a press conference to denounce a Congressional plan to appropriate $1.25 billion to close out the Pigford v. Vilsack court case.

Pigford v. Vilsack, originally Pigford v. Glickman, was a court case brought in the early 1990s against the USDA charging discrimination against a black farmer from North Carolina, Timothy Pigford. Some 400 black farmers ended up joining in the lawsuit. It alleged the USDA discriminated against the farmers in lending in the 1980s and 1990s. It was granted class action status in 1998.
Many farmers who said they were discriminated against failed to file a timely claim and eventually, the case was opened again to give more farmers a chance to file. Farmers who filed successful claims could in most cases receive $50,000 in compensation, plus a tax break.

In his press conference last week, King said the total compensation amount could be as much as $187,500 per claimant. He said the number of claims has grown to about 94,000, far more than the total number of black farmers, even if one counts all the black farmers going back to the 1970s.

King and Bachmann accused lawyers of “trolling” for people in neighborhoods who would be willing to file a claim regardless of its legitimacy, in order to get more contingency fees. They also claim to have spoken with seven witnesses involved in Pigford, or who are or were employed by USDA, who say there is a great deal of fraud.
“That Farm Service Agency (FSA) county administration director told me that he believed a minimum of 75 percent of the claims that he processed were fraudulent,” King said. “And that happens to be one of the lower figures I get when I sit down and talk to USDA employees.”

King wants a Congressional investigation into the matter, but said most of the members are afraid to deal with it. “It’s a racially-charged issue, that’s the bottom line,” he said. “People are afraid to touch it.”

Bachmann wondered why no USDA employee was ever fired or reprimanded for discriminating against black farmers.

“Why is it there is no evidence of even one USDA employee being fired over this level of discrimination?” she asked. “Certainly employees should have been fired. If they weren’t fired, there certainly should have been evidence of a reprimand.”

Heather Gray is communications director of the Federated Southern Cooperatives (FSC), a nonprofit organization that represents black farmers and others who live in rural areas. She said it’s the largest organization of its kind, with offices all across the South.

She said recently the USDA began to count the number of black farmers and other minority farmers, rather than the Census Bureau. “We’ve lost thousands and thousands and thousands of farmers,” Gray said. “They really need to focus on the number of minority farmers in the country. There’s a lot more minority farmers than have ever been counted.”

She also said some farmers who applied for relief might not qualify, but that doesn’t mean their claims are fraudulent. Many, she said, might not be familiar with the requirements. Also, when more than one heir applies for relief because their parent or grandparent was a farmer who would have qualified, such claims will be merged.

Gray has worked with hundreds of Pigford claimants. She said she’s talked with black farmers who’ve walked into FSA offices and had their loan applications thrown in the trash right in front of them.
“They’ve been disrespected,” she said. “You’ve wouldn’t believe the way some of these farmers have been treated.” She added that farmers are proud and don’t like to complain.

At the press conference, Bachmann said she isn’t suggesting there wasn’t discrimination.

“We believe that there are actual instances of discrimination occurred by the USDA, and they must be compensated,” she said.
In a Sept. 29 statement, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said, “Black farmers throughout the country unfortunately faced discrimination in past decades when trying to obtain services from USDA. This discrimination is well-documented, the courts have affirmed this discrimination and Congress has twice acknowledged the need to settle with those who have suffered from this discrimination.

“It is now time for Congress to pass the funding so the victims of this discrimination can get the opportunity to receive the compensation that they are due … The time for Congressional action to fund the settlement agreement is running out, and the victims of this discrimination should not need to wait a day longer.”