Minority farmers claim government owes millions following American Rescue Plan Act pledges

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Update:

• A group of minority farmers from Virginia argue the U.S. government owes them millions of dollars in financial assistance they say was promised in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). 
• The ARPA is a now-defunct pandemic-era relief program that, the group of minority farmers argue, contractually obligated the government to provide financial assistance.
• The minority farmers argue the U.S. government — by repealing the program — ultimately failed to fulfill its pledge to provide financial aid.
• The government countered that the basis of compensation it offered the farmers through the ARPA did not represent a binding contract. 
• The minority farmers argue the government, meanwhile, is simply trying to wish the contract out of existence and that it was wrong to enact legislation in August 2022 that revised the eligibility for the programs. 

Minority farmers class action lawsuit overview: 

• Who: John Boyd, Jr., Kara Boyd, Lester Bonner and Princess Williams filed a class action lawsuit against the United States of America. 
• Why: The group of Virginia farmers claim a new law revising a federal initiative aimed to compensating farmers for past discrimination has “devestated” them. 
• Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

(Oct. 17, 2022)

A piece of legislation welcomed by President Joe Biden that revised a federal initiative that helped farmers reduce their loan debt to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has “devastated” farmers, a new class action lawsuit alleges. 

Plaintiffs John Boyd Jr., Kara Boyd, Lester Bonner and Princess Williams claim the law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, messed with a prior initiative aiming to compensate farmers for past discrimination. 

The plaintiffs — all Virginia farmers — argue the new law removed race as a factor for the distribution of the relief funds, making them no longer eligible to receive much-needed aid. 

The group of farmers claim the government passed the new law in order to “skirt its contractual commitments” in what they are calling a “blatant attempt.” 

“They did not receive the benefit for which they had bargained,” states the minority farmers class action. “And they suffered financial damage in reliance on the U.S. Government’s promises by making purchases they are now unable to afford.”

Farmers claim they ‘heavily invested’ in their farms while under the impression they’d be receiving aid 

The plaintiffs argue some of them, in response to the initial federal initiative, heavily invested in their farms while being under the impression that they had been eligible for government aid. 

The loan-relief program had been put in place in March 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan, which purported to forgive as much as 120% of certain debts owed by farmers of color to the USDA. 

The inflation reduction act has since gotten rid of the racial criteria built into the original program, while replacing it with race-neutral terminology instead, according to the minority farmers class action. 

Also this month, a total of six states filed a lawsuit against President Biden, the United States Department of Education, and its secretary Miguel Cardona over claims that Biden’s student debt cancellation plan is “unlawful and arbitrary.”

Have you been affected by the revisions to the American Rescue Plan? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiffs are represented by Nada Djordjevic, Adam J. Levitt, John J. Frawley, Diandra Debrosse Zimmermann, Eli Hare and Éviealle Dawkins of DiCello Levitt LLC and Ben Crump, Chris O’Neal, Nabeha Shaer and Desiree Austin-Holliday of Ben Crump Law PLLC.

The minority farmers class action lawsuit is Boyd, et al. v. USA, Case No. 1:22-cv-01473, in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. 

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