pigford

Hoyer 'Very Disappointed' That USDA Race Settlement Stripped From War Bill

Christina Bellantoni | July 27, 2010, 11:00AM

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said today that he is "very disappointed" that senators struck settlement funds for African-American farmers who faced discrimination from a supplemental spending bill his chamber passed earlier this year.

The funds, known at the Pigford II settlement, are intended to compensate farmers for long-standing racial discrimination they faced from USDA that, in many cases, resulted in the loss of their farms. The settlement achieved a level of publicity last week after some conservatives attempted to use the firing of Shirley Sherrod to claim that the settlement procedures had led to fraud.

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