Caroline May
The Daily Caller
11/23/2010
Despite numerous allegations of fraud, the Senate approved legislation by a voice vote Friday to fund $1.15 billion worth of settlements to black farmers who claim the U.S. Department of Agriculture discriminated against them.
The legislation now makes its way to the House, where Republican Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Steve King of Iowa, and Bob Goodlatte of Virginia have made it clear that they will be pushing hard to prevent its passage and will be calling for investigations into every claim prior to allowing any payoffs.
Much of the cause for concern is the fact that there have been vastly more claims of discrimination than there are even black farmers in America. [Emphasis CAJ] Sworn testimony before the House Judiciary Committee by the president of the National Black Farmers Association, John Boyd, put the number of black farmers in America at 18,000.
To date, more than 94,000 individuals have filed discrimination claims.
This is the second payoff from a 1999 class action settlement, known as Pigford vs. Glickman, in which the original plaintiff Timothy Pigford, along with 400 others, sued USDA for discrimination in its allocation of loans. The plaintiffs won, but since then, the number of claimants have vastly ballooned to unanticipated levels.
Read the rest at The Daily Caller.
Also: Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa): Pigford settlement boils down to ‘paying people for their skin color’
Both articles H/T BigGovernment.com
Update: Also at BigGovernment, Lawmakers Warn $1.2 Billion Pigford Payout to Black Farmers Rife With Fraud
