https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/15322-democrats-advance-ag-stimulus-package-as-gop-attack-minority-farmer-debt-relief (https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/15322-democrats-advance-ag-stimulus-package-as-gop-attack-minority-farmer-debt-relief)
QuoteDemocrats forced a $16.1 billion agriculture stimulus plan through the House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday, brushing aside Republican assertions that a provision providing debt relief for minority farmers was far too broad and could face legal challenges.
The package, which was approved on a party-line 25-23 vote during a seven-hour virtual meeting with members scattered across the country, will be folded into a broader $1.9 trillion stimulus bill backed by President Joe Biden.
Committee Chairman David Scott, a Georgia Democrat who is the committee's first Black Democrat, vigorously defended the debt relief plan. "There has been no one who has been discriminated in the whole agriculture industry like African Americans, who deserve some compassion and understanding," he said.
"We African Americans were the pioneers in agriculture ... We had to do it for no compensation as slaves in this country, and ever since then we've been trying to bring justice to that."
Under that provision, which is the result of discussions that started with the Biden transition team, a farmer who qualifies as socially disadvantaged, under a definition in the 1990 farm bill, could get a payment worth 120% of the amount they owe on a USDA direct or guaranteed loan. The additional 20% is intended to cover the taxes the farmers would owe on the debt-relief payment.
Democratic members of the committee initially struggled to explain whether white women would qualify for the payments, but a committee staffer said it would be limited to Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and Asian Americans.
But Scott argued that the ultimate goal of the debt relief was to increase the number of Black farmers, who now represent just 1% of all producers, he said.
Rep. Austin Scott, a Georgia Republican who is white and of no relation to the chairman, noted USDA had paid out $2.2 billion in settlements for discrimination against Black farmers starting in 1999.
"The idea that the federal government can write a check for 120% of someone's outstanding loan balance when we've already settled the cases from 1999 and 2010, I think It's wrong, and I think it's unconstitutional," said Scott. He noted eligible farmers wouldn't have to prove they had been discriminated against.
Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, argued it would be unprecedented for the federal government to provide debt relief to a group of people for more than what they owed. It "would be more clear, fair and responsible to cap this forgiveness at 100%, just as all our other loans are at this point," he said.
But committee Democrats defeated his amendment to cap the payments at 100% of indebtedness as well as a proposal by Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., to limit the debt relief to loans that minority farmers had taken out as a result of the pandemic. Hartzler said her amendment would have kept the bill focused on coronavirus relief.
There's no point in mincing words. This government is explicitly anti-White.
It is why Georgia voted, as they voted.
Anti-white. Clean.
The 80% of white farmers continue to lose, because the base of votes is Atlanta ... which has no connection to rural Georgia.
I didn't know that there were that many non-white farmers.
:confused:
The only systemic racism in America is anti-white, there seems to be no end in sight until that is full blown genocide that is.