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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 24, 2002 Baca to Question Agriculture Department Officials about Discriminatory Farm Loan Practices
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Representative Joe Baca (D-Rialto) will question U.S. Department of Agriculture officials on Wednesday, September 25, about whether the Department's Farm Service Agency and Office of Civil Rights acted improperly while investigating complaints of discrimination against Latino farmers. The questions will be posed at a House Agriculture Committee hearing, and will focus on claims by minority farmers that the FSA has improperly denied or delayed federal farm loans, and that OCR has not conducted proper and timely investigations into the claims. Since 1997, groups of African-American, women, Native American, and Latino farmers have filed class action lawsuits against the Department alleging discrimination in the Department's loan process. The Department has generally issued stays of foreclosure for farmers involved in African American or Native American class action claims involving FSA loan programs, but failed to issue stays of foreclosure for Latino class members in the Garcia v. Veneman suit. Baca and other members of the Committee will be asking why the different classes have been treated differently. "The only explanation for the disparity in the treatment of Latino farmers and other farmers in this case is that the Department of Agriculture was already embroiled in class action litigation with African American and Native American farmers, and wanted to discourage any further lawsuits," Baca said. "It's inherently discriminatory to treat one class of litigants differently than the others, even though their claims are just as legitimate." Latino, African American, and Native American farmers also allege that the Department's civil rights office has not processed complaints of discrimination in a timely manner. Agriculture Department regulations require that certain pieces of the complaint process be completed within 180 days, but set no specific time requirement for other pieces. The Department on average takes more than 2 years to fully adjudicate claims, in which time lenders have instead foreclosed on many minority farms that may have sought restitution under their claims. "The Department has made only minimal progress in changing its regulations to provide for more timely and efficient complaint resolution," Baca said. "The regulations as they stand now seem to allow the department to take as long as it wants to process claims, all the while Black, Native American, and Latino farmers are going under." Latino farmers allege that FSA offices have been using minor credit discrepancies and ambiguous regulatory language to deny or delay loan payments. The regulations allow the FSA to delay payments because of farmers' unacceptable credit histories. The regulations further state that isolated missed payments could, but do not automatically, represent unacceptable credit history. "How is it that a late payment or two is causing minority farmers to loose their farms altogether, even though they qualified and were receiving federal aid?" Baca asked. "The USDA needs to explain to the Committee what it is doing to plug the holes in its regulatory framework that are causing Latinos to lose their farms." The hearing will take place in the House Agriculture Committee hearing room, 1301 Longworth House Office Building in Washington, D.C., at 10:00 a.m. # # # |
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