Black Buzz News Service
Possum Trot, Mississippi
December 3, 2010
BBNS
Black Farmers Settlement Approved
POSSUM TROT....The House has given final Congressional approval to a bill that would provide more than $4.55 billion to settle tens of thousands of longstanding claims brought by African Americans farmers and American Indians.
The bill provides $1.15 billion to African Americans left out of a 1999 settlement of a lawsuit, Pigford v. Glickman; in that settlement the federal government agreed to compensate black farmers and would-be farmers who said Agriculture Department officials denied or cheated them out of federal aid. To be eligible for money now, claimants must have farmed or attempted to farm between 1981 and 1986, have filed a discrimination complaint before July 1, 1987, and have filed a claim after the deadline in the original settlement.
The bill provides another $3.4 billion to American Indian plaintiffs who claim that Interior officials is managed royalties from leases of tribal land used to harvest oil, minerals and timber. Plaintiffs will receive $1.4 billion directly, while the government will use $2 billion to repurchase Indian lands broken up under the Dawes Act in the late 19th and early 20th century. Another $60 million will fund scholarships for American Indian students.
Representative James Clyburn, the majority whip, said the bill helped right historic injustices.
“Today we removed the stain on our country’s history and rectified these injustices,” he said, thanking several Republicans for helping with the bill. “What happened to our nation’s African American farmers and Native Americans was wrong, and we have made it right.”
The vote in the House was 256-152. President Obama is expected to sign it soon.
In a statement Tuesday, Mr. Obama applauded the bill’s passage, and pledged to continue efforts to resolve similar claims brought by women and Hispanic farmers. “Yet, while today’s vote demonstrates important progress, we must remember that much work remains to be done,” he said.
While members of both parties have said they supported compensation for the farmers and the Native Americans, some Republicans oppose the bill. Representative Michele Bachman has claimed that the black farmers’ suit was “rife with fraud” because there more claimants than there are black farmers. And Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, has called the case a form of reparations for slavery.
John W. Boyd Jr. , the president of the National Black Farmers Association, countered that the dwindled number of black farmers was a result of the discrimination patterns alleged in the suit.
“This case ain’t got a thing to do with fraud,” he said Tuesday. “It’s about a group of black farmers complaining about what was done to them and seeking justice.”
The House has attached funding for the settlements to larger legislation twice, only to see it stripped out in the Senate over cost concerns. After months of wrangling, Senate lawmakers approved the settlements on
Nov. 19th as a separate measure.
The Senate legislation also provides more than $1 billion to settle four water rights cases brought by American Indian tribes and extends for one year the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which helps states provide cash assistance and other services to the poor.
The money for the settlement will come out of funds from a surplus in nutrition programs for women and children, higher fees for customs activity and a Treasury program to recover overpaid unemployment benefits.
* Solomon Comissiong Comments about the Black Farmers Proposed Settlement.
Mr Solomon led a delegation of students, faculty and staff from the UMD campus to the USDA Office in Washington D.C. on September 22, 2010 in support of the Black Farmers. Solo is an Activist, Educator, Public Speaker and President of the Black Faculty & Staff at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland.
" I told everyone that Obama, the Republicans, the Democrats, The House and Senate are treacherous."
" The additional steps added to the claims process include an audit by an Inspector General and oversight by the Attorney Generals Office, as well as a review by the Secretary of Agriculture, who must sign off on a farmer's claim.Attorney's involved in cases must swear in writing that the claims are legitimate, and a special federal" Adjudicator" must also take an oath that the claim is legitimate and many request additional information and documentation. At the end of the process is another round of oversight and review from Department of Agriculture and the Department of Justice at the top levels."
"Its a fake payment. The USDA is currently Foreclosing on 500,000 acres of Black Farmer land as we speak and Obama knows this. Further even if the President signs the bill into law Black Farmers must still pay tax on the money. Next Black Farmers and heirs must go before a Judge and see if they qualify for $ 20,000-50,000. Indeed 99% of Black Farmers will never see any more than that amount if they are approved. If approved Black Farmers will still have to pay tax on that money and their Farms are being foreclosed on as we speak. So its a bulls deal from the get go. Its only a win for the Obama Administration and the government."
* Jesse Peters Comments on the Black Farmers Settlement
Mr. Peters is a consultant to the Mr. Boyd who is the President of the Black Farmers Association
" Hola Ron: Thanks for the info... I'm very much involved with the Black farmers and Mr. Boyd. I am glad that you are getting the real information out..... The public thinks this some big-wind fall for Black farmers and its not.
Rush Limbaugh has really put out some erroneous info and many gullible people believe it. Thanks , Jess SHS' 59
* Ronald B. Saunders Comments on the Black and Native American Farmers Settlement
It is vitally important for the U.S. public to read many different sources of the news. One must read other sources other than the corporate controlled news media in this country whose agenda is based upon bating the gullible and naive public with a systematic program of misinformation neatly packaged as real accurate truthful news.
NPR and the New York Times are two of the greatest offenders of this distorted news coverage emanating from the corporate controlled media.
This entertainment dressed-up and disguised as news is pumped into our living rooms on daily basis by the Electronic Media. Thus a lazy American public is spoon fed a diet of slanted propaganda solely for the benefit of those corrupt corporate elites, and a government that has fallen into a type of Machiavellian decay and decadence.
This is not a good settlement for the Black and Native Americans Farmers and the Obama Administration will attempt to sell this Award as some type of just panacea. The Obama Administration will try to sell anything to get a victory going forth into the 2012 election.
The U.S. government doesn't have enough money to pay the Native
Americans for all the injustices inflicted upon them.
Every treaty that the U.S. government entered into with the Native Tribes they wantonly and brutally violated. This Settlement with the Native Americans tribes is "Chicken Crap."
Every centimeter of land in these United States was stolen from the Native Americans, by force and genocide.
Crooked Jack Abramoff is best known for cheating and defrauding six Native American tribes who were his clients of over 100 millions dollars and the impact of his egregious crimes is still being felt by those tribes.
Abramoff is a second cousin of the infamous financial gangster Bernie Madoff.
This is a horrible weak and incomplete settlement.
I am not naive enough to think the U.S. govt. was going to give these long suffering farmers a just settlement. Most Black people in this country are clueless about this settlement. Secondly they have their own set of problems and many don't relate well to these farmers.
When the farmers made their annual pilgrimages to the nations capital protesting their plight in the 1980's their was knowledge of this problem as many Blacks in the D.C. Metro area had first hand experience of said problems.
When the brave Black farmers came in 2007 they were greeted with derision and indifference by most Black people near their protest.
The Congressional Black Caucus had a chance to alter the rules of the settlement but they were to busy partying, and getting payoffs from lobbyist.
CSPAN had a whole hearing on this the subject of the Black and Native American Farmers for many days. Yes CSPAN is part of the corporate controlled media. I only heard two CBC members give cogent arguments about the rules of this settlement.
Presently the Congressional Black Caucus is giving an appearance of finally doing something constructive about the plight of the Black farmers.
But this settlement will become hung-up in a quagmire of bureaucratic inertia and duplicitous red tape.
The CBC has always maintained a pattern and practice of not taking on the real tough issues that really impact on the lives of people of color on a daily basis. The CBC is merely a reflection of the people who continually vote for them on an ongoing basis who have grown accustomed to accepting this mediocrity disguised as representing the people.
I believe in taking the bull by the horns as this is the part responsible for guidance. Many times the Congressional Black Caucus has spoken out against various injustices and inequities and an equal number of times the matter has been dropped. "For a dog to be effective, he or she must not only have a bark but a bite."
I could care less about the political misfortunes of Charlie Rangel. I am more concern about the plight of the Black and Native American Farmers, the racist criminal justice system that sends a disproportionate number of Black men to the horrible prisons in this country thus fueling the vast 'prison-industrial-complex. Contrary to the misleading bogus reports by Lawn Jockey's such as General Colin Powell, our public schools are failing in every aspect from A to Z, which includes the inferior mediocre and deficient Education Schools that continually turn out bad products called teachers.
Who and what is scrutinizing and validating what these second rate Ed. Schools are doing with reference to preparing our teachers, administrators and counselors? And of course the parents have also failed to live up to their responsibility in seeing that there child is being educated in mastering all the subject material from grades K to 12.
Most of our Schools systems in the major cities and throughout the USA are more reminiscent of backward Third World School systems, and many parents don't give a damn for the most part.
Most Americans are aware of the fact that the best & brightest U.S. students performed poorly on the International Assessment Tests in Math and Science compared to other students in the so-called civilized nations of the world which is a pure unadulterated indictment of the entire corrupt American Educational system.
Private school education is also not up to par and sub-standard in the U.S in comparison to such nations as South Korea, Finland, Japan and China.
The Achievement Gap between U.S. students and their International counterparts in Math, Science and Geography is widening.
Obama's "Race To The Top" is nothing but a clever political ploy by a spineless politician to give a quick fix to the many systemic problems that will take a real revolution in the entire Educational arena in making our schools accountable in order to meet the tremendous challenges in a expansive global economy.
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