Report faults USDA on black farmers' claims

The Environmental Working Group and the Black Farmers Association Tuesday plan to release a report that finds the Agriculture Department has "willfully obstructed justice" by making it difficult or impossible for thousands of black farmers to file claims or obtain compensation under a 1999 civil rights settlement.

Both groups will recommend that Congress take action to remedy the situation.

That settlement, which allowed black farmers to sue the USDA, stemmed from a class action lawsuit filed by a black farmer, Timothy Pigford. It alleged that USDA had discriminated against black farmers by denying or delaying applications for benefit programs and by mishandling the discrimination complaints filed with the department.

The report says that nearly nine of 10 farmers have been denied restitution and that USDA has spent 56,000 staff hours contesting individual farmer claims.

In a teleconference Monday, a USDA spokesman said officials were "not in a position to respond to any particulars in the report."

Farm Service Agency Deputy Administrator Carolyn Cooksey noted that the consent decree did not order USDA to pay out a specific amount of money, and that USDA had spent a lot of staff hours on the cases in order to answer the court's questions about the claims.