The Biden Administration announced Wednesday that it has issued over $2 billion worth of payments to over 40,000 people under a program aimed at addressing racial discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The payouts come after lawsuit filed on behalf of Black farmers over decades of discrimination in USDA loan access.
The USDA announced Wednesday that it had paid out the more than $2 billion allocated for the Discrimination Financial Assistance Program, which was passed as part of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. DFAP is intended to address farmers and potential farmers who experienced discrimination when applying for USDA farm loans prior to 2021. “For too long, many farmers and ranchers experienced discrimination in farm loan programs and have not had the same access to federal resources and support,” President Joe Biden said as he explained his reasons for creating the program, per a USDA news release.
The program has provided payouts to two groups of people based on a now concluded application process. Over 23,000 farmers were allocated awards averaging almost $82,000 apiece. Additionally, an average of $5,000 each was awarded to another 20,000 people who intended to start farms but were unable to do so because they were denied USDA loans. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said the data gathered through the program and its application process “will help USDA as we fine tune our efforts to make USDA programs accessible, inclusive and equitable to all,” according to the USDA news release.
The USDA statement did not give a racial breakdown of the farmers approved through the program but noted that recipients of the payments live in all 50 states as well as Washington, D.C., and several U.S. territories. The Associated Press reported that most of the money was paid to farmers in Alabama and Mississippi. DFAP was created after several plaintiffs sued the USDA for discriminating against Black farmers. A program to provide loan forgiveness to Black farmers was passed by Congress in 2021 but paused when white farmers sued to block it, leading Congress to take measures with broader eligibility, such as DFAP.
“While this financial assistance is not compensation for anyone’s losses or pain endured, it is an acknowledgement,” Vilsack said of the payments. John Boyd Jr., founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association and one of the plaintiffs behind the original lawsuit, described the payments as “like putting a bandage on somebody that needs open-heart surgery.” Boyd is still pursuing his lawsuit.
With a decades-long history of racial discrimination against Black farmers, the United States has a long way to go to make amends for its biased policies. The payments issued through this latest program will make a dent in the enduring racial disparities of farming and will hopefully inform future efforts as well.
