Biden Administration Begins Paying Farmers Who Faced Discrimination

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration said Wednesday that it had started disbursing $2 billion to thousands of farmers who have faced discrimination, after years of delays and legal battles thwarted the federal government’s efforts to compensate them.

The payouts come nearly two years after the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 created a fund to help farmers of any ethnicity who experienced discrimination from the federal government when applying for loans or trying to repay their debts. The slow rollout of the program became a political problem for President Joe Biden this year, with Black farmers accusing him of failing to live up to his promises to help them.

“For too long, many farmers and ranchers experienced discrimination in farm loan programs and have not had the same access to federal resources and support,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday. “I promised to address this inequity when I became president. Today that promise has become a reality.”

The Agriculture Department is making payments to 43,000 farmers across all 50 states, with Mississippi and Alabama having the most recipients. The average payment, which is subject to taxes, is $82,000.

About 60,000 farmers applied for the money. Applications were vetted by independent consulting firms that the Agriculture Department hired, and farmers were eligible to receive funds if they faced discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation or religion.

The Agriculture Department said it was still analyzing the applications and payouts to determine demographic information about payment recipients.

However, John Boyd, the president of the National Black Farmers Association, said that he was told by the White House that Black farmers received about $1.5 billion of the available funds.

“It’s long overdue,” Boyd said in an interview. “These are payments that these farmers desperately need.”

He added, “Justice comes slow for Black people.”

Boyd said in June that he would not support Biden’s reelection campaign because he believed the president had failed to keep his promises to help Black farmers. But on Wednesday, he said that he was open to supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and hoped to have a conversation with her about the financial challenges that Black farmers are facing.

The support of Black farmers could be particularly helpful to Harris in states like Georgia, where there was substantial frustration about the Biden administration’s handling of the money.

“These payments, which I was proud to secure, will go a long way towards helping Georgia farmers stay on their farms and get out of the red,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.

The $2 billion program was created after a Biden administration program that aimed to provide $4 billion of debt relief for Black farmers was shut down amid lawsuits from white farmers. Rather than fighting the lawsuits, which argued that the federal government should not be awarding money based on race, Democrats designed a broader initiative that would be less vulnerable to litigation.

Black farmers have endured decades of discrimination from banks and the federal government. Tom Vilsack, the agriculture secretary, has carried out an extensive review of the agency to try to root out discrimination

“What we’re attempting to do is to greatly create a new narrative for the department,” Vilsack said Wednesday. “While this financial assistance is not compensation for anyone’s losses or pain endured, it is an acknowledgment — and my hope is that this financial assistance will help many farmers stay on their farms.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .