A federal judge in Wisconsin ordered a temporary halt to a $4 billion federal loan relief program intended to provide debt relief to farmers of color.
How we got here: The relief program, under Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act, set aside around $4 billion for loan forgiveness for “socially disadvantaged” farmers and ranchers to pay up to 120% of the loans.
The Agriculture Department said “socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher” are minorities or people of color, including Latino, Hispanic, black, Asian American or Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaskan native.
The program triggered a lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty in April on behalf of 12 farmers from nine states. The plaintiffs argued that the policy discriminates against them because of the color of their skin and that white farmers should be eligible to receive payment from the fund.
The ruling: Judge William Griesbach issued a temporary restraining order on Thursday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, saying that the Agriculture department is using the wrong benchmarks to decide who should get relief aid under the program.
The judge said the program is “intended to provide economic relief to disadvantaged individuals without actually considering the financial circumstances of the applicant.”
“Congress can implement race-neutral programs to help farmers and ranchers in need of financial assistance, such as requiring individual determinations of disadvantaged status or giving priority to loans of farmers and ranchers that were left out of the previous pandemic relief funding. But it cannot discriminate on the basis of race,” Griesbach wrote.
“The obvious response to a government agency that claims it continues to discriminate against farmers because of their race or national origin is to direct it to stop: it is not to direct it to intentionally discriminate against others on the basis of their race and national origin,” the judge noted.
The USDA said it will review Griesbach’s decision.
“We respectfully disagree with this temporary order and USDA will continue to forcefully defend our ability to carry out this act of Congress and deliver debt relief to socially disadvantaged borrowers,” a spokesperson for the department said. “When the temporary order is lifted, USDA will be prepared to provide the debt relief authorized by Congress.”
