USDA’s debt relief for farmers of color is held up in several lawsuits alleging “reverse discrimination,” so Congress is working on a new plan.
The new effort is part of the $1.75 trillion dollar spending package and targets limited resource farmers. It makes no mention of race.
Instead, the language focuses on economically-distressed farmers, ranchers, and forest owners in areas with a high amount of poverty. Payments would be up to half a million dollars a piece to victims of bias in USDA lending programs.
The initiative is estimated to be about $6 billion dollars.
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