Political Quotes

“I rise today to talk about the Pigford II settlement pending full action by the U.S. Senate. We all know that farming is a difficult occupation. The hours are long, the weather is unpredictable, and the challenge of competing in a global marketplace is intense. Tens of thousands of Black farmers have had to face all those normal challenges. Tragically, they have also had to deal with a challenge that was unique to them based solely on race. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, was discriminating against them. More than 12 years ago, Black farmers across America brought a class action suit against the USDA for racial discrimination. The history of that discrimination is a sad one, and it is well documented. Farmers, like all businesses, need access to loans. They need to borrow money for expensive equipment and they need funding to help them when droughts strike or when markets collapse. The Congress has recognized this need for decades, and we have established special loan programs in the USDA to support these special needs. But when it came to lending, tens of thousands of Black farmers were the victims of systemic discrimination. During the 1980s and 1990s, the average processing time for a loan application by White farmers was 30 days; the average time for a loan application by Black farmers was 387 days. Black farmers had to wait 12 times as long to receive a loan.”