Vilsack, White Farmers, Equity Commission, and Banks, What a Mess

A while back, in a blogpost on this blog, I lined out some pretty strong opinions about Secretary Tom Vilsack "slow-walking" processes such that white farmers will always be paid, but Black farmers will never find their debts cancelled as promised. 

Today, I'd like to add one more varible to the long list of dates and slow walking. The dates are set in stone from that previous post here. 

"1) March 3, 2021, Senator Warnock succeeds in getting his "Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act" passed. 

2) March 11, 2021, President Biden signs into law the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Within this package is section 1005 which allowed $4 Billion to be granted to farmers of color for debt relief of their direct loans. It also included section 1006 to the tune of $1.01 Billion for outreach, training, education, technical assistance, grants and loans, and other things related to minority farmers, or Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers, a 2501 designation. The debt relief pack was shaped by Senator Warnock's legislation. 

3) The Miller v. Vilsack was filed in Texas on April 26, 2021. White farmers as a class are certified and the preliminary injunction signed by the judge. The white farmers claim reverse discrimination despite the fact that white farmers have received nearly all of the subsidies, coronavirus relief funds, and the funds from trump's failed war with China.

4) Faust etal v. Vilsack was filed on April 29, 2021 and the temporary restraining order granted on June 10, 2021. 

5) Winn v. Vilsack was filed on May 25, 2021. Defendants responded on June 4, a hearing was held June 16, and the judge issued the preliminary injunction on June 23, 2021."

Point is that Vilsack had more than enough time from the moment that President Biden signed the ARPA of 2021, and even before the ink dried, he could have had things in place. After all, the USDA does have computers, does it not? And it has records of every direct or guaranteed load and to whom, right? Yes, I thought so. 

On May 19, 2021, Alan Rappaport wrote an article in the New York Times entitled, "Banks Fight $4 Billion Debt Relief Plan For Black Farmers."  Rappaport surfaces a letter from three banking entitities to Vilsack telling him that to cancel the debts of Black farmers would costs them a lot of money. 

So, there we have it, Vilsack sauntering down the highway of life while our people die. While the white farmers file their racist and foolish lawsuits that stop debt cancellation, and the bankers associations lodge their complaints, Vilsack does nothing. 

And, he's still doing nothing for Black farmers but for white farmers and corporate farms, he's doing a lot. 

Another blog post on this page, I ventured out with my opinion about the Equity Commission and what it's all about. We told Biden that it was a bad idea. We told Vilsack and others that it was a bad idea. We said, to make a long story short, that there is a plethora of reports and commissions and we don't need another commission report. We have enough of them, and the document will be filed away or something like that, I told a reporter from Politico. In this specific blogpost, I address the conflict of interest and ethics violations, ones that USDA is saying that are not so, but me and my friends say is so. 

And now, to put all of these things together, we have it under good authority that Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack, President Biden's appointee for a third wasted term, is now doing an end run around congressional policies and law. 

In section 1006 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, there is a $1B fund that is equally divided across four sub-items. Each category will receive $250M per our sources. The Equity Commission is paid out of #5 and that's another story. Vilsack is allegedly going to allocate those numbers across items in the way he wants, drop the total number of dollars or Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers to $250K when the ARPA had the cap at $500K. And, item #5 for direct payments to farmers and ranchers will not be made now but will require applications and documentation for those funds. And, per one of my colleagues, "the use of funds for the other items will not save one Black farmer." 

Also, he is expanding the groups that will receive any sort of funding under section 1006. Once upon a time this was for Black farmers and then it got watered down to historically underserved farmers and now to a benefit pool of 80 per cent of all farmers and ranchers. 

Those details can get confusing. Let me say it this way, Thomas Vilsack is running USDA like a plantation and he is going to do what he damn well pleases unless we all reach out and stop him. 

Thomas Vilsack has no interest in doing right by Black farmers and other minority farmers. He is listening to his own white self and to the white interests of other farmers and ranchers and law suits. 

He needs to be removed from office immediately. 

Let Justice Ring: America the Wounded

Let Justice Ring: America the Wounded: Oh, beautiful for spacious skies Except for the ones filled with our childrens’ cries. This land is your land, this land is my land ...

Thoughts and Prayers.........More Thoughts and Prayers.......Enough with Thoughts and Prayers

It is not lost on me that most people do not know what to do during times of brutality like Uvalde or Charleston or Buffalo. We see the carnage on the television or on our computers and we feel overwhelmed and stuck. We wring our hands and do not know what to do. We feel deep empathy of those who have lost their loved ones, or rather for those who have had the lives of their loved ones taken away in senseless acts of gun violence. 

So, I think it is the natural human response to say, "Our thoughts and prayers are with them." Even today, at the end of a telehealth consult for my vision, my provider said something to the effect of praying for someone who had just gotten out of the hospital. I'm not opposed to praying at all. I am, in fact, a keen fan of praying. I pray a lot, and I think and study about praying a lot, and, in fact, the Jesus who prayed often and in various settings is someone that I am studying these days. 

However, when I hear politicians offer their "thoughts and prayers," my immediate response is revulsion and my internal thoughts, you probably don't want to hear that internal dialogue or monlogue or whatever you want to call it. You and I both know that "thoughts and prayers" is a way of deflecting and postponing any meaningful discourse and/or change around things that matter to us. 

I get it that it takes time for things to change. That is coming from me, a guy who has been advocating for justice for Black farmers since 1994. No one has to tell me how slowly the wheels of justice roll and how along the way, those wheels grind good people into the very ground that they are living upon. 

But, then, on occasion there will come people like Senator Elizabeth Warren who offered her plan for justice for Black farmers, and then there are others like Senator Booker, Senator Warnock, or Senator Sanders, and Senator Stabenow, and others who offer up policies for change. Then, there are people like Secretary Thomas Vilsack who stands in the way of debt cancellation for Black farmers and it takes other activities of other entities in Washington to challenge him. 

So, when politicians on the right offer up "thoughts and prayers," then I watch what they do and where they go and what they say. When they comment about those on the left being guilty of politicizing tragedy, and then they do the same thing, my emotions boil over. Then, look at where they go to speak. In fact, look at the names of those who are on the speaking agenda for the NRA this weekend in Houston. After the murders in Uvalde, this meeting being held is tone deaf. 

No, they are not serious about creating change in America. Too many votes ride on it. To win in some elections, you have to be sold out to the NRA. The NRA would not be friendly to anyone who advocates for change on the American stage. 

One the other hand, I was proud to see our President stand up in the White House, not too many hours after he had returned from his overseas trip, and grieve over America and its children. While he may not be the Consoler in Chief nor sing Amazing Grace at a memorial service like President Obama, still he is a good man who knows grief and tragedy personally. 

Still, however, it is up to you and me to do something beyond wring our hands. We must vote. Vote for persons who see the gun crisis for what it is, a senseless crisis that kills our children and vulnerable adults. Vote for those people who see the issue as a growing public health crisis. Vote for them, and arm yourself with information about gun violence as a public health crisis.   Vote for those people who will take your agenda to Washington or to the statehouse in whatever state you live. 

If someone is serious about the gun crisis, they will suspend their loyalty to the NRA and to the heinous interpretation of the 2nd amendment and to all things guns. They will change policies about who can get what guns and how they can get them. No 18 year old needs two AR-15s. Deer do not wear kevlar on their bodies. If you can't kill a deer in one, maybe two shots, you need to do something else. 

There has been a feverish debate over the origins of the 2nd amendment for eons. Here's one history of it.  If you are willing to venture into new territory, I'd recommend Carolyn Anderson's work on the history of guns and the second amendment here. 

Either way, America loves its guns. Despite the carnage over the last few decades, we still maintain that owning is our right, and owning how much and how many and for what reasons are our rights. We love them, and our individual freedoms too much, and at times this at the expense of the most vulnerable. 

So, take your "thoughts and prayers" and put them into action. Vote for people who will carry your convictions that enough is enough, enough of our children and others have died, and, no, the NRA does not need to own our souls here in America. 

Let our thoughts and prayers be mobilized for action. Expect public policy to take a long time to develop and for it to be shaped into laws. It will never happen as long as we sit and wait and offer up our thoughts and prayers. 

And, on that note, this is a guy who has it right. He said it well. I can't improve it. He says it well here. Click on his picture of all of the Uvalde children and then read his words. Well worth it. Posted here with his permission. 

Thoughts and prayers did not save the saints in Charleston, nor at the grocery store in Buffalo, nor the children at the schools in Uvalde or Sandy Hook, and they will not save us. 

Pray, preach, write, march, and vote. Work for change. Put your feet into it. Put your heart into it. Put your soul into it. Put your words into it. 

Do something. 

Do something. 

Just do something. 

The persons you help to save may be those you love. 

Let Justice Ring: Dear Lord, Please Quiet My Troubled Soul

Let Justice Ring: Dear Lord, Please Quiet My Troubled Soul: Dear Lord, please quiet my troubled soul And may I ever be so bold As to make a plea Worded only to thee To give my weary soul ...

Conflicts of Interest: USDA and Equity Commission?

For about ten years I was an appointed member of the Texas State Board of Examiners of Marriage and Family Therapists. During some of that time, I was either the appointee to attend or a voted upon Member at Large of the Association of Marriage and Family Regulatory Boards. 

In both of those arenas, MFT was important. In both of those, public protection was crucially important.

At the same time, I was a member (still am) of the Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and Texas Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. Expansion of the discipline is important here. 

Are they related? Certainly. Are they in different domains? Absolutely. 

Ethical standards and conflicts of interest were terribly important to us. Such matters were linked to a successful practice in marriage and family therapy, or losing the license to practice marriage and family therapy. 

That brings me to the USDA and its Equity Commission. The Equity Commission was established by the authority of the President of the US in his Executive Order relative to equity. 

The Justice for Black Farmers Group has argued in many places and on various occasions that this commission is unnecessary and costly. The $10M to underwrite it comes from section 1006 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Section 1005 was explicitly designed to provide debt cancellation for socially disadantaged farmers and ranchers until the white farmer lawsuits starting rolling out, now about 12 or 13 of them. Section 1006 was designed to provide administrative support for these farmers and to provide debt cancellation as well. 

We have argued that we have enough commissions and reports. To name a few, the 1982 US Commission on Civil Rights, the Civil Rights Action Team Report of 1997, the Jackson Lewis Report of 2011, the D. J. Miller Report of 1999, and one of my favorites the OIG Report on the Office of Civil Rights, released in September, 2021. They all say the same thing: the USDA has a history of malfeasance in dealing with Black farmers and advantaging white farmer. 

The latest investigative report by Francis etal, "How the Government Helped White Farmers Steal Black Farmland," was just released last week in the New Republic. 

But these are only tangentially the point. 

The point is conflicts of interest. 

This USDA document defines conflict and interest and an apparent conflict of interest. Here is the definition of the appearance of a conflict of interest: "A situation in which it could reasonably be concluded that an employee's private interest is in conflict with the employee's Government duties and responsibilities, even though there may not actually be such a conflict." 

Here is the definition of a conflict of interest: "A situation in which a Federal employee's private interest conflicts with the full, fair, and impartial performance of Government duties and responsibilities. In other words, a situation in which a Federal employee's private interest, usually of an economic nature, conflicts with his or her Government duties and responsibilities. Conflict-of-interest statutes are contained in Chapter 11, Sections 202-209 and 216 of Title 18 U.S. Code."

The Equity Commission and the subcommittee on Agriculture have 28 members total. Of those 28 members, 8 of them and their organizations have received substantial funding from the USDA. Last year, the USDA released a list of 20 groups,  "Cooperative Agreement Organizations," and none of these groups had to apply for any funding. There is no indication of accountability and transparency in these groups and the $75M that they received. What we know is that none of the groups that signed on to our letter of criticism of the USDA and Tom Vilsack received any of those dollars. 

It is true that within the Equity Commission's FAQ, that having received funding is not within and of itself a conflict of interest, according to the USDA. It goes on to add this sentence, however: "All Equity Commission members who are ultimately appointed must comply with ethics requirements and mitigate any conflicts of interest."

Sounds like a conflict of interest to me.  I give you a nice chunk of change, upwards of $2/5M, then I appoint you, or rather I pursue you, to serve on an Equity Commission that is designed to create equity within services and programs of an entity that is well known for discriminating against minority farmers, and I want you to help me. I've helped you, so now I want you to help me. 

BTW, the helper here is Secretary Thomas Vilsack who has a horrendous record of civil rights at the USDA. How do I know, you ask? Just look at this brutal piece of investigative reporting by Rosenberg and Stucki from 2019. The title speaks for itself, but within the article are five myths of the Vilsack administration. I know several of the folks interviewed. I would trust them with my life. 

So, is there a conflict of interest if my organization received several million dollars via a Cooperative Agreement, one in which I did not have to apply for the funding, and serving on the Equity Commission? Maybe not legally, but I think it smells mighty fishy. Mighty fishy. Awfully fishy.