American Rescue Plan directs $4 7 billion in aid for minority farmers houmatoday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from houmatoday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The COVID relief and economic package is a massive bill that has a far-reaching impact in ways that many Americans don t know about yet. One provision calls for debt relief for Black farmers, who have long been denied access to government funding. John Boyd, a fourth-generation farmer in Virginia and president of the National Black Farmers Association, joins Lisa Desjardins to discuss.
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Judy Woodruff:
The COVID relief law is massive, with far-reaching impact. It includes debt relief for America s Black farmers, long denied government funding.
Lisa Desjardins reports.
Judy, the new law allocates $5 billion for farmers of color.
Editorial: Struggling Black farmers finally getting the financial relief they deserve yahoo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yahoo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Mar 17th, 2021 4 min read
COMMENTARY BY
Senior Fellow, Angeles T. Arredondo E Pluribus Unum Fellow
Mike Gonzalez is a senior fellow in Heritage s Allison Center for Foreign Policy and the Angeles T. Arredondo E Pluribus Unum fellow. Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ, testifies about reparations for the descendants of slaves before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on June 19, 2019. Cheriss May / NurPhoto / Getty Images
Key Takeaways
The recently enacted COVID-19 relief law and other bills wending their way through Congress openly favor members of certain races or ethnic categories.
Membership in any of these racial, ethnic, or gender categories automatically entitles a farmer to benefits, “without regard to individual qualities.”
Graham’s comments about the COVID relief bill and Black farmers sparked outrage.
Published 4 days ago
Sen.
Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) believes Black farmers and farmers of color who are getting assistance via the COVID relief bill received “reparations.”
John Boyd Jr., the president of the National Black Farmers Association, is now asking for an apology.
During a March 15 interview with Rev.
Al Sharpton on
MSNBC, Boyd said, “I lobbied Sen. Lindsey Graham as a congressman. I lobbied him as a senator. I ve been by his office and asked him to help me fix the proble/ms at the United States Department of Agriculture that caused Black farmers to lose millions of acres of land and address the lack of loans and subsidies, and he s never once used his megaphone to speak out against the discrimination.”