Congress and its actions move at a snail's pace. The latest round of funding to alleviate inequities in the farming world and to make up for racism and discrimination against Black farmers and others are two illustrations. That effort to square things and to bring about equity has some seriously long trails across the sand, and this post will hopefully make some sense for us all.
For starters, there are two different line items in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Those are very important to know as they are present day goings on. I hope this will help explain a few things, but how we got here is also equally important. We'll not discuss inequities within USDA in terms of white farmers versus minority farmers, or those who fall under the 2501 category. I've written about this shennanigans before, or, simply google "Stucki and Rosenberg," and you get what I consider to be the most importnat pieces of research.
The funding for 22006 from the coffers of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 was a long time coming. That funding for "distressed borrowers," or those who due to environmental factors, market fluctuations, and other financial hardship would bring their indebtedness to $0 plus provide an extra payment for the upcoming due date.
What could go wrong? Right? Except that things with the federal government are rarely, if ever, easy.
The IRA of 2022 didn't just fall out of the sky. There are footprints across the landscape that explain it. Here are some back ground pieces of information.
For instance, it was thanks to Senator Raphael Warnock that he was able to plug some factors originally in The Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act into the text of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The big piece in the ARPA was 100% debt relief for farmers who were in the 2501 designation, or socially disadvantaged farmers, plus 20% for tax relief. There were other important pieces of this legislation as we entered fully into the age of the COVID pandemic with its disastrous impact upon our economy.
As I have written earlier, this bill should have passed quickly and enacted soon thereafter; however, a number of white farmers across the country, including the Ag Commissioner in Texas filed 12 lawsuits which ultimately derailed the process. As the US DOJ and Ag Sec Tom Vilsack lolly-gagged, or "slow-walking" as I called it, two courts called a halt to the dessimination of funds. The white farmers claimed "reverse discrimination," a rather laughable notion given the history of racism in this country and especially that of the USDA, by its own admission. One particular law firm, America First Legal, and its key leader who had worked in the Trump administration was behind those "frivolous and racist lawsuits," as one of my collegues oftentimes asserts. I think he is right. That person who has now returned to the White House as deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller. You'll remember him as the chief architect of Trump's immigration policy. I think he must still be at it. It is interesting that he is such a hard liner when it is true that his extended family immigrated to America.
I used Environmental Working Group's USDA data and explored income and sources for the first six litigants against the ARPA. After all, they claimed reverse discrimination, so their finances should show that impact, right? Actually, those first six litigants pulled in via a variety of government and USDA sources some $524,000 over a three year period from a variety of sources, and the counties in which their farms and ranches are located pulled in over $1.2B over the same period of time. Reverse discrimination? These white farmers have no clue as to what discrimination is all about.
And then things got even worse. With a distinct tone set in America, Congress passed what it knew would pass, a "race-neutral" bill called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 which reworked and realigned economic support for all farmers who were determined to be "distressed borrowers" or victims of discrimination.
This particular bill opened the bank account of the government and the USDA pretty wide. It provided $3.1B for "distressed borrowers" and $2.2B for those who'd been discriminated against. Prior to this bill, these sorts of funds were essentially for farmers and ranchers who fell into the 2501 category or Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers who had clearly been discriminated against.
We'll continue with more of this story in the next part of this two-part series.
