Michele Bachmann: “To me, one of the most obvious problems with this bill that we are being called upon to verify today and to vote for is…”

“To me, one of the most obvious problems with this bill that we are being called upon to verify today and to vote for is simply a numbers problem. If we are looking at this Pigford claim whereby we have black farmers who are stating that they are discriminated against, we had approximately 14,500 claims that were paid out in the first Pigford I class action lawsuit. But now what's very interesting is that the black farmers themselves are saying we are looking at a potential universe of about 18,000 black farmers. The period in question when the United States Department of Agriculture is alleged to have discriminated against black farmers is between 1981 and 1997. Between that 16-year period, according to the numbers that people agree on, there is a universe of about 18,000 black farmers. Well, in the Pigford I settlement, 14,500 black farmers received claims. What this means then is we would have to presume that nearly every black farmer in the United States applied for a loan from the USDA.”