House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Scott calls lawsuits against aid for minority farmers “shameful.” Congress gave the Department of Agriculture money to help with debt relief to Black, American Indian, Hispanic, Asian American, or Pacific Islander farmers. However, there are farmers suing USDA over the aid program included in the American Rescue Plan relief package.
Scott says, “This shameful lawsuit is racial discrimination at its worst against our nation’s Black farmers and socially disadvantaged farmers.” His comments were targeting a lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.
A federal judge this month ordered USDA to temporarily stop the program, but USDA says it will forcefully defend the debt relief program. The DOJ says the farmers in the Wisconsin lawsuit “have failed to show irreparable harm and the government is well within its constitutional rights to provide the debt relief,” according to Politico.
