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.
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