News Coverage
Congressman Promises Help for Black Farmers
Published April 30, 2009
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Artur Davis reassured black farmers Wednesday that Congress and the Obama administration will deliver on a promise to compensate them for past discrimination by the Department of Agriculture.
"We are going to put more money on the table," Davis, D-Birmingham, told a group of black farmers. "This is a starting point."
Black farmers mostly from Southern states were in Washington this week to press Congress and the Obama administration to increase the $100 million set aside in the 2008 farm bill to pay farmers as part of a 1999 settlement of a discrimination case. Farmers also complained that payments have yet to be disbursed.
"The farmers are very frustrated," said John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association. "We want this issue to have some priority ... We know that the president is very busy, but we don't think the issue is getting the attention that it should."
Black farmers rallied Tuesday outside the Department of Agriculture and held a legislative conference Wednesday at a hotel near the Capitol.
Thousands of black farmers received $50,000 payments as part of the settlement with the USDA, known as the Pigford case.
Davis and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., pressed to get extra funding in the farm bill to pay late filers whose claims were rejected. Obama, then a senator for Illinois, also pushed the legislation and later campaigned on the issue.
"The $100 million was a placeholder," said Davis, adding that the bill allows Congress to increase funding each year. "It was not meant to be a cap of any sort."
But Justice Department officials recently filed a motion arguing that the fund is "demonstrably inadequate to resolve the claims of the current plaintiffs, let alone all of the potential claimants under the act."
The Justice Department estimates that 65,000 black farmers could file claims that could total about $4 billion. At that rate, justice officials wrote, the fund would run out after the first 1,600 successful claims.
Davis tried to assure farmers that Obama and Congress would act to ensure the funding was in place. "I know the heart of the president," said Davis. "I think you're going to like what's going to happen."
Black farmers charge that agriculture officials have denied them loans and assistance based on their race.
The Environmental Working Group, a research group in Washington, found that black farmers received less in federal crop subsidies than other farmers and that the gap has widened over the years. In 2005, black farmers received $4,291 compared to $13,846 for other farmers, according to the group.