Pigford II Settlement
Floor Speech
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Arkansas for what she has said. It really is unfortunate that we cannot get this Pigford legislation passed.
I know the distinguished Presiding Officer, the junior Senator from North Carolina, has been working on this very hard as well. In fact, she and I have cosponsored a piece of legislation to give justice in this area as well.
Today, we have an opportunity to finally take care of this situation of bringing justice to Black farmers who have been waiting for decades to settle their discrimination claims against the Department of Agriculture. Earlier this year, Secretary Vilsack was able to reach a settlement agreement with the Pigford II claimants who were denied a determination on the merits of their claims against the USDA for no reason other than they had filed late.
The government has an obligation to fund the settlement, which is subject to court approval, and Congress must act to provide relief for these claimants and do it quickly. The Black farmers have been asking for stand-alone consideration of this bill. That is what I was hoping to get done today.
I have nothing against what my colleagues are doing on the Cobell settlement as well.
I think it is fair to say that such appropriation for the Pigford settlement ought to be offset.
There is an advocate for the Black farmers--John Boyd. I have been working with him for a long period. He was working hard on this a long time before I was. We should be getting this resolved for the benefit of the farmers but also for the advocates, those people who have been working so hard finding ways to get it done. We thought now was the opportunity to get it done.
The farm bill we passed last year does one thing right: it focuses a considerable amount of resources on new and beginning farmers and ranchers. Many of the Pigford claimants were in that same boat 20 years ago. We have an opportunity to rectify that misjustice. We know USDA has admitted the discrimination occurred. Now we are obligated to do our best getting relief to those who deserve it. It is time to make these claimants right and move forward into a new era of civil rights in the Department of Agriculture.
I look forward to the time we can get this done. I plead with my colleagues, as the Senator from Arkansas pleaded, to get this done right now.
I yield the floor.
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