By Christopher WalljasperCHICAGO, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Lawmakers introduced two bills to help minority farmers this week, aiming to address longstanding injustices in the agricultural sector.Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock on Tuesday introduced a $5 billion Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act as part of the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief stimulus package. It aims to provide immediate financial relief to Black, indigenous and Hispanic farmers.
USDA Photo by Preston Keres Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act would provide direct payments to historically-underserved farmers of color.
New legislation introduced in the Senate is aimed at delivering direct relief to Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic farmers and other agricultural producers of color to help them respond to the consequences of the pandemic and resulting economic downturn, as well as address what lawmakers claim is longstanding inequity in agriculture from USDA and other government agencies. The Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act would provide $5 billion to America’s Black, Indigenous, Hispanic and farmers of color as part of the COVID relief package Congress is now working on.
February 2, 2021
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Tony Pipa & Katharine Ferguson
This is the second in a series (see Part 1) on how to ensure development investments that are part of COVID-19 relief and recovery set the stage for thriving rural communities and a more distributed, inclusive US economy. It was cross-posted by the Brookings Institution.
This article has been updated since its original posting in June 2020. On January 20, 2021, Katharine Ferguson joined the US Department of Agriculture as Chief of Staff. The ideas in this blog do not necessarily represent the policy of the USDA.
With President Biden newly inaugurated, debate still rages on whether to offer COVID-19 relief to state, local, and tribal governments, which are in acute fiscal crisis due to an unexpected double whammy: the direct costs associated with taking quick, decisive action to protect public health, and the indirect costs of loss of revenue that are the inevitable fallout of interrupted economic activity due to social d
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