How Biden administration secretly discriminated against white farmers
The Biden Administration secretly discriminated against white farmers when it came to loan forgiveness, a whistleblower said.
A USDA employee told NewsNation that the agency, while under Biden, radically profiled farmers and only forgave loans of minority borrower.
'It was to pay off anyone who wasn't a white male's loan,' the whistleblower said. 'That was the only qualification for this loan forgiveness.
'They were trying to keep this hushed because of the obvious implications of race-based loan forgiveness.'
The green-light for the program was buried in the American Rescue Plan Act, which allowed the government to pay up to 120 percent of the outstanding debt of 'each socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher,' NewsNation found.
After the program was struck as unconstitutional, the Biden Administration allegedly sent an email to minority farmers about the Inflation Reduction Act, which was intended to provide financial assistance to borrowers who were over 60 days behind on payments.
The whistleblower said white farmers were not sent this email, which provided $3.1billion of relief.
'It wasn't about hardship,' white farmer, James Dunlap, of Baker City, Oregon, told NewsNation. 'It wasn't about financial situations. It was about that box you checked under ethnicity line under your application.'
Dunlap works two additional jobs to keep his farm afloat, he told NewsNation, yet he still didn't qualify for the loan forgiveness.
The Oregon farmer was one of the many who sued the Biden Administration over the American Rescue Plan Act, claiming that it was race-based and violated the Constitution.
A federal judge ruled the white farmers had been constitutionally harmed in ways that 'cannot be undone.'
Following the decision, the Biden Administration still sent the Inflation Reduction Act email.
The January 10, 2023, letter shared 'information about new payments and/or loan modifications that may assist you,' NewsNation, which obtained a copy of the letter, reported.
The whistleblower said the letter was only sent to those who qualified as a 'socially disadvantaged farmer' under the American Rescue Plan Act.
'You are receiving this letter because you were previously informed of your potential eligibility as a Farm Loan Programs borrower for a payment under Section 1005 of the American Rescue Plan Act' the letter read, according to NewsNation.
The letter informed farmers that the USDA could not grant loan forgiveness to them anymore, but the Inflation Reduction Act could, the outlet reported.
The whistleblower also alleged the USDA workers were instructed to tell some minority farmers to stop paying, so the loans would be forgiven.
'It's not right,' he told NewsNation. 'It was discriminatory, unethical.
'And the people who pushed it are still in charge of the agency … [those] at the national office. Trump hasn't gotten rid of them.'
In a statement to NewsNation, a USDA spokesperson did not address the specifics of the program, but slammed the Biden Administration for leaving the agency in 'complete disarray and dysfunction'.
'And that's why farmers were being left behind,' the spokesperson said. 'The entire farm economy has been hurt by Biden's inaction.
'It is absurd that while the Biden Administration was driving up inflation, American taxpayers were forced to fund billions in woke DEI initiatives.
'No one should be shocked that Biden weaponized bipartisan farm programs to discriminate and provide taxpayer dollars to one group based on race and not on merit.
'Instead, USDA is reprioritizing unity, equality, meritocracy, and color-blind policies,' the statement continued.
The spokesman added that the new Secretary of Agriculture under the Trump Administration Brooke Rollins is reviewing the situation.
'Secretary Rollins directed USDA to review Inflation Reduction Act funding to ensure that it honors the sacred obligation to American taxpayers - and to ensure that programs are focused on supporting farmers and ranchers, not DEI programs or far-left climate programs,' he said.
'Unlike the Biden Administration, under Trump, USDA does not discriminate and single out individual farmers based on race, sex, or political orientation.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS College sports changed forever as judge approves groundbreaking move
Judge Claudia Wilken has approved the settlement in the House v. NCAA case - which now paves a pathway to allow colleges and universities to directly pay their athletes and changes the dynamic of American collegiate athletics forever. A decade ago, college athletes were treated as amateurs and were not directly compensated for their contributions to athletic departments, nor were they able to be paid by outside companies. With the rise of name, image, and likeness agreements in 2021, athletes could sign endorsement deals with companies and collectives of donors could pool money which could be given to athletes. Now, with this landmark settlement, the NCAA's member institutions will be allowed to pay their athletes directly in the form of revenue sharing agreements. The focal point of this case began with Arizona State swimmer Grant House, who sued the NCAA and its five biggest conferences at the time - the SEC, Big Ten, Big XII, ACC, and Pac-12 - to lift restrictions on revenue sharing. Wilken gave approval to a final proposal after months of negotiating multiple finer points of the deal - including roster limits.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
President of California's largest union arrested while observing ICE raids in LA
Labor leader David Huerta was detained while observing Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids taking place in Los Angeles. The Service Employees International Union California (SEIU) says that its president was injured during the ICE raids and is calling for his release, NBC4 Los Angeles reports. 'SEIU California members call for the immediate release of our President, David Huerta, who was injured and detained at the site of one of today's ICE raids in Los Angeles. He is now receiving medical attention while in custody,' Tia Orr, Executive Director of SEIU California, said. Mayor Karen Bass told NBC4 that Huerta had been pepper-sprayed during the incident. "He is doing ok physically, but I know what really impacted him the most was the emotional trauma of watching parents and kids being separated," Bass said. "He's going into ICE custody and we hope to get him out very soon." The mayor said she does not know why Huerta is being detained. The SEIU issued a statement supporting Huerta, insisting that he was "exercising his First Amendment right to observe and document law enforcement activity." 'We are proud of President Huerta's righteous participation as a community observer, in keeping with his long history of advocating for immigrant workers and with the highest values of our movement: standing up to injustice, regardless of personal risk or the power of those perpetrating it," the union said. Orr also condemned the ICE raids. 'We call for an end to the cruel, destructive, and indiscriminate ICE raids that are tearing apart our communities, disrupting our economy, and hurting all working people. Immigrant workers are essential to our society: feeding our nation, caring for our elders, cleaning our workplaces, and building our homes,' she said. Bass said she is going to meet with immigrant support groups to discuss plans for responding to situations like the mass ICE raids in the future. "My message to them is that we are going to fight for all Angelenos regardless of when they got here, whether they have papers or not," she said. "We are a city of immigrants, and this impacts hundreds of thousands of Angelenos." ICE arrested approximately 44 people in Friday's raid, according to Homeland Security Investigations. 'Today, ICE officers and agents alongside partner law enforcement agencies, executed four federal search warrants at three location in central Los Angeles. Approximately 44 people were administratively arrested and one arrest for obstruction. The investigation remains ongoing, updates will follow as appropriate," HSI spokesperson Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe said in a statement.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Federal judge approves $2.8B settlement, paving way for US colleges to pay athletes millions
A federal judge signed off on arguably the biggest change in the history of college sports on Friday, clearing the way for schools to begin paying their athletes millions of dollars as soon as next month as the multibillion-dollar industry shreds the last vestiges of the amateur model that defined it for more than a century. Nearly five years after Arizona State swimmer Grant House sued the NCAA and its five biggest conferences to lift restrictions on revenue sharing, U.S. Judge Claudia Wilken approved the final proposal that had been hung up on roster limits, just one of many changes ahead amid concerns that thousands of walk-on athletes will lose their chance to play college sports. The sweeping terms of the so-called House settlement include approval for each school to share up to $20.5 million with athletes over the next year and $2.7 billion that will be paid over the next decade to thousands of former players who were barred from that revenue for years. The agreement brings a seismic shift to hundreds of schools that were forced to reckon with the reality that their players are the ones producing the billions in TV and other revenue, mostly through football and basketball, that keep this machine humming. The scope of the changes — some have already begun — is difficult to overstate. The professionalization of college athletics will be seen in the high-stakes and expensive recruitment of stars on their way to the NFL and NBA, and they will be felt by athletes whose schools have decided to pare their programs. The agreement will resonate in nearly every one of the NCAA's 1,100 member schools boasting nearly 500,000 athletes. The road to a settlement Wilken's ruling comes 11 years after she dealt the first significant blow to the NCAA ideal of amateurism when she ruled in favor of former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon and others who were seeking a way to earn money from the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) — a term that is now as common in college sports as 'March Madness' or 'Roll Tide.' It was just four years ago that the NCAA cleared the way for NIL money to start flowing, but the changes coming are even bigger. Wilken granted preliminary approval to the settlement last October. That sent colleges scurrying to determine not only how they were going to afford the payments, but how to regulate an industry that also allows players to cut deals with third parties so long as they are deemed compliant by a newly formed enforcement group that will be run by auditors at Deloitte. The agreement takes a big chunk of oversight away from the NCAA and puts it in the hands of the four biggest conferences. The ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC hold most of the power and decision-making heft, especially when it comes to the College Football Playoff, which is the most significant financial driver in the industry and is not under the NCAA umbrella like the March Madness tournaments are. Winners and losers The list of winners and losers is long and, in some cases, hard to tease out. A rough guide of winners would include football and basketball stars at the biggest schools, which will devote much of their bankroll to signing and retaining them. For instance, Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood's NIL deal is reportedly worth between $10.5 million and $12 million. Losers will be the walk-ons and partial scholarship athletes whose spots are gone. One of the adjustments made at Wilken's behest was to give those athletes a chance to return to the schools that cut them in anticipation of the deal going through. Also in limbo are Olympic sports many of those athletes play and that serve as the main pipeline for a U.S. team that has won the most medals at every Olympics since the downfall of the Soviet Union. All this is a price worth paying, according to the attorneys who crafted the settlement and argue they delivered exactly what they were asked for: an attempt to put more money in the pockets of the players whose sweat and toil keep people watching from the start of football season through March Madness and the College World Series in June. What the settlement does not solve is the threat of further litigation. Though this deal brings some uniformity to the rules, states still have separate laws regarding how NIL can be doled out, which could lead to legal challenges. NCAA President Charlie Baker has been consistent in pushing for federal legislation that would put college sports under one rulebook and, if he has his way, provide some form of antitrust protection to prevent the new model from being disrupted again. ___
