An Overview of the USDA Discrimination Financial Assistance Program
Topic:
On July 7, 2023, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the opening of the USDA Discrimination Financial Assistance Program. This Program was authorized by Section 22007 of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). The IRA called for the USDA to create a program that makes 2.2 billion dollars available for “discrimination financial assistance” for farmers who can show that they “experienced discrimination” in USDA Farm Loan Programs. Discrimination must have occurred before January 1, 2021. The deadline to apply is October 31, 2023. Because the application is long and requires detailed information and documents, farmers should start working on the application right away.
The webinar briefly places the program in legal and historical context and eligibility for the program, what counts as discrimination, documentation requirements, how applicants can get access to USDA documents, the details of the program application, and the program process.
Time and Date:
Wednesday, August 23, 2023
3 p.m. – 4 p.m. (EDT)
2 p.m. – 3 p.m. (CDT)
Participation:
Presenter:
Stephen Carpenter is Deputy Director and Senior Staff Attorney at Farmers’ Legal Action Group, Inc. (FLAG). FLAG is a nonprofit law firm that works on behalf of family farmers. At FLAG, Stephen’s work has centered on discrimination in agricultural lending, debtor-creditor issues, COVID-19 relief, disaster assistance, federal farm programs, sustainable agriculture and direct marketing, and the problems of farmers contracting for livestock production. Stephen has conducted frequent FLAG trainings for farmers, advocates, and attorneys and has spoken to farmers and their advocates in more than forty states. He has authored and edited several FLAG materials and publications and has written a number of law review articles. Stephen is a graduate of Drury College in Springfield, Missouri, and of Stanford Law School. He came to FLAG in 1993.