The Biden administration defied federal courts and Congress by continuing an anti-white, race-based loan forgiveness program through the Department of Agriculture.
And worse still, a whistleblower told NewsNation, despite the Trump administration’s ballyhooed attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the federal bureaucracy, the far-left bureaucrats responsible for the program still work in the department.
The Agriculture Department says it has stopped the DEI madness. But if the bureaucrats are still employed, then change at the department might well be impossible.
Written Into Law
The anti-white discrimination in the loan forgiveness program began with the American Rescue Act, passed in 2021. Section 1005 of the act says the secretary of agriculture, at that time Tom Vilsack, “shall provide a payment in an amount up to 120 percent of the outstanding indebtedness of each socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher as of January 1, 2021, to pay off the loan directly or to the socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher.”
Federal law defined a “socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher” as one who is black, Asian, Hispanic, or another minority. Left out: whites.
White American farmers nationwide sued.
“It is undeniable — and notably uncontested by the parties — that U.S.D.A. had a dark history of past discrimination against minority farmers,” one judge wrote. Then again, the judge wrote, Section 1005 “relies, albeit without any ill intention, on present discrimination to remedy past discrimination.”
The minority farmers could get debt relief even if they were profitable, the judge noted:
Yet a small white farmer who is on the brink of foreclosure can do nothing to qualify for debt relief. Race or ethnicity is the sole, inflexible factor that determines the availability of relief provided by the Government under Section 1005.
Another judge ruled likewise. The harm, he wrote, “cannot be undone.” As well, the judge wrote, white farmers “will suffer the harm of being excluded from eligibility for that debt relief program solely on the basis of race … is irreparable.”
The plaintiffs dropped their lawsuits when Congress scrapped the discriminatory language in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
As one of the plaintiffs, James Dunlap, told NewsNation, “it wasn’t about hardship. It wasn’t about financial situations. It was about that box you checked under ethnicity line under your application.”
But again, farmers such as Dunlap thought the matter was settled.
Secret Email
Not so, NewsNation reported.
It “obtained a copy of an email that was sent out on January 10, 2023, “to share information about new payments and/or loan modifications that may assist you,” the website reported:
The letter went on to inform these socially disadvantaged farmers that, although the American Rescue Plan Act no longer grants the USDA statutory authority to fund payments to them, a new payment and loan modification program is available under the Inflation Act.
White farmers did not receive the email, the whistleblower told NewsNation. Indeed, “USDA workers were even instructed to tell that specific group of socially disadvantaged farmers to stop paying their loans because they would be forgiven.”
“It was to pay off to anyone who wasn’t a white male,” the whistleblower said of the anti-white loan forgiveness in the American Rescue Plan. “That was the only qualification for this long forgiveness.”
As for the email minority farmers received pursuant to loan forgiveness in the IRA, white farmers, again, “got nothing,” the whistleblower said.
“It isn’t right.… It was discriminatory,” he continued:
It was unethical. And the people who pushed are still in charge of the agency … at our national office. … Trump hasn’t gotten rid of them.
Agriculture Response
The Agriculture Department didn’t answer NewsNation’s questions about the email or the bureaucrats whom the whistleblower says still work there.
It did say the “Biden Administration left USDA in complete disarray and dysfunction and that’s why farmers were being left behind” and “American taxpayers were forced to fund billions in woke DEI initiatives.”
“No one should be shocked that Biden weaponized bipartisan farm programs to discriminate and provide taxpayer dollars to one group based on race and not on merit,” the department continued:
On day one, Secretary [Brooke] Rollins issued a memorandum to rescind all DEI programs.
On Day 1 of his administration, Trump ordered an end to “all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear.”
That order included firing “all DEI, DEIA, and ‘environmental justice’ offices and positions (including but not limited to ‘Chief Diversity Officer’ positions); all ‘equity action plans,’ ‘equity’ actions, initiatives, or programs, ‘equity-related’ grants or contracts; and all DEI or DEIA performance requirements for employees, contractors, or grantees.”
That would include, presumably, the bureaucrats still working at USDA who emailed minority, but not white, farmers about loan forgiveness. But, again, the whistleblower said, those subversive employees are still at work.
