USDA to Pay Out in Discrimination Lawsuit

With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.

Last week the Biden-Harris Administration announced it has issued payments to eligible applicants under the Inflation Reduction Act’s Discrimination Financial Assistance Program, which allocated $2.2 billion and directed USDA to provide financial assistance to farmers, ranchers and forest landowners who experienced discrimination in USDA farm lending programs prior to January 2021.

The recipients include over 23,000 individuals who have or had a farming or ranching operation, who are receiving between $10,000 and $500,000 of assistance, with an average of nearly $82,000. Recipients also include over 20,000 individuals who planned to have a farming or ranching operation, but reported they were unable to do so because they couldn’t get a USDA loan. These individuals are receiving between $3,500 and $6,000 of assistance.

USDA shows this impacting 6,494 producers and 4,413 planned producers in Alabama, 329 producers and 217 planned producers in Florida, and 1,191 producers and 979 planned producers in Georgia.