A new conservative legal group has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration, accusing it of racial discrimination in the distribution of COVID-19 aid.
Stephen Miller, a former senior adviser to then-President Trump, said Monday that his America First Legal Foundation has sued to prevent President Biden from prioritizing minority farmers and ranchers for aid in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act.
In “the American Rescue Act … they award farm aid for farmers who’ve been hurt by this pandemic based on skin color. That is fundamentally un-American,” Mr. Miller said in an appearance on Newsmax TV’s “Spicer & Co.” program.
“I would argue and my organization would argue that that violates federal nondiscrimination rules,” he said. “We are suing to say that this lawless policy needs to be enjoined.”
Mr. Miller said the lawsuit was filed earlier Monday evening in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, formally by Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller against U.S. Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack.
The massive plan has a $5 billion provision to compensate black farmers, which Mr. Miller argued is racial discrimination on its face.
“Millions of people were hurt by this pandemic, millions of people were hurt as a result of the closures, the shutdowns, the disruptions to our lives. And when it comes to getting financial aid, it shouldn’t matter what race or ethnicity you are,” he said.
“You can’t make a more equal country, you can’t make a more unified country if we split and divide based on race,” he concluded.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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