Senate Approves $1.15 Billion Pigford II Settlement – House Repubs Vow To Push Back

Why am I not surprised that ANSWER is involved with this scam?

The Daily Caller reports on a story that was pushed into the public spotlight a few months ago by none other than Andrew Breitbart.  Thanks to his controversial Shirley Sherrod video, bloggers like Zombie started sniffing into the story,  and wondered how there could be so many more individual discrimination claims than there are of black farmers in the country.

Pigford II settlement to black farmers to be opposed by Republicans in the House

Despite numerous allegations of fraud, the Senate approved legislation by a voice vote Friday to fund $1.15 billion worth of settlements to black farmers who claim the U.S. Department of Agriculture discriminated against them.

The legislation now makes its way to the House, where Republican Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Steve King of Iowa, and Bob Goodlatte of Virginia have made it clear that they will be pushing hard to prevent its passage and will be calling for investigations into every claim prior to allowing any payoffs.

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Sworn testimony before the House Judiciary Committee by the president of the National Black Farmers Association, John Boyd, put the number of black farmers in America at 18,000.

To date, more than 94,000 individuals have filed discrimination claims.

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King told The Daily Caller that the process by which the money has been allocated is flawed.
“This new settlement, Pigford II, is not a class action lawsuit. This has not been approved by the court. This is something that has been negotiated by Eric Holder, Tom Vilsack and John Boyd,” King said. “They just sat down and made a deal. Congress doesn’t know what they’ve done [by passing it].”

USDA employees and FBI officials estimate that the number of fraudulent claims range from 50 percent to 95 percent.

Bachmann told TheDC that despite all the fuss over discrimination, there has not been one firing, reprimand, censure or fine at the USDA.

“Everything has been hurry, hurry, hurry. We have to funnel the money out the door. Especially when it comes just before the election,” she said. “There was every incentive for individuals to scam the taxpayer and there was no down side because a Democrat controlled Congress failed to look into oversight of the issue.”

Bachmann says the new Republican House will hold hearings and investigate every single claim before it goes out.