OPINION:
Democrats are all about giving away other people’s money, especially if it gives them the appearance of righting bygone wrongs like slavery. When it comes to doing something about present wrongs affecting Black farmers, however, they display a curious parsimony.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut off applications for Black farmers to receive compensation for race-based discrimination they experienced when applying for government-backed farm loans over the course of several decades.
Though they constitute a small portion of growers, Black farmers, primarily in the South, wound up receiving about half the amount in loans from Uncle Sam compared with their peers. Often, they’d be turned away in the application process, or forced to wait forever for an answer.
Such delays could prove just as destructive as denials. Farms run on thin margins, and not being able to make the rent in times of drought or disaster drove many into foreclosure or bankruptcy.
This was all documented in a court settlement 25 years ago. But the USDA couldn’t even manage that properly. The department set up a convoluted process and turned away anyone who failed to file an application by the arbitrary deadline. That forced a second lawsuit and settlement.
Resolving this matter should have been simple. Instead, it has been complicated, arduous, and for many, incredibly intimidating — much like the literacy tests Jim Crow-era Democrats used in the South to keep non-Whites from voting. Even the website for the USDA’s Discrimination Financial Assistance Program has a confusing name: 22007apply.gov.
To participate in the program, the same farmers who faced discrimination for many years had to return, hat in hand, asking for help from the same agency that once shunned them. Many secured outside counsel to guide them through the process and protect their interests before a bureaucracy that experience has taught them to distrust.
Outside attorneys often operate on a contingent-fee basis. They are often the only option available to growers unable to afford the eye-popping hourly rates giant agribusinesses have no trouble paying. Yet the department complicates the choice of counsel by not allowing program applicants to choose to have payments made to legal trust accounts or sent to locations other than their permanent address.
These restrictions interfere with the process as spelled out in many contingent-fee contracts and, just like that, the farmers find themselves on the short end of the stick again.
By setting up third-party affiliated regional hubs and selecting a national administrator to help operate the program and guide applicants, the USDA wants slighted farmers to believe it is acting in their best interests. Growers are understandably hesitant to accept that the department is acting on good faith.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack could resolve the remaining complaints by making minor adjustments, removing artificial restrictions and reopening the application process with enough time provided for those who missed last month’s deadline.
Doing so would right a wrong in real time, done to the people who experienced it.
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