Black Farmers' Refrain: Where's All Our Money?

• Screwed by the Dept. of Agriculture - Only hope is an act of Congress

Thousands of claims have been denied for a tangle of reasons including tight deadlines and late submissions, lawyers' bungling  and, perhaps most significantly, the resistance of the Agriculture Department, which critics say has used technicalities to deny farmers a hard-won remedy.  For those rejected, the only hope for restitution is an act of Congress. To date, the department has paid $814 million to 13,445 of the farmers who applied for relief. More than 80,000 others were rejected, most because they missed the October 1999 deadline. Many say they did not learn of the settlement until too late; the department has insisted that the deadlines be strictly enforced. A study by the Environmental Working Group and the Black Farmers Association concluded that the department had spent millions fighting the approximately 22,000 claims that were filed on time. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say the agency has filed objections to each application. [more]