[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 558 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 558

  To provide relief for African-American farmers filing claims in the 
         cases of Pigford v. Veneman and Brewington v. Veneman.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 18, 2007

    Mr. Davis of Alabama (for himself, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Thompson of 
   Mississippi, Mr. Butterfield, Mr. Scott of Georgia, Mr. Bishop of 
 Georgia, Mr. Clay, Mr. Moore of Kansas, and Mr. Cohen) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, 
  and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
  of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
                               concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To provide relief for African-American farmers filing claims in the 
         cases of Pigford v. Veneman and Brewington v. Veneman.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``African-American Farmers Benefits 
Relief Act of 2007''.

SEC. 2. EXTENSION OF DEADLINE FOR FILING CLAIM IN PIGFORD V. VENEMAN.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) In 1998, a lawsuit was filed against the Department of 
        Agriculture (referred to in this subsection as the ``USDA''), 
        the second largest agency of the Federal Government, alleging 
        that the USDA had violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (15 
        U.S.C. 1691 et seq.) and the Administrative Procedure Act (5 
        U.S.C. 551 et seq.) by maintaining a pattern and practice of 
        discrimination against African-American farmers. Such pattern 
        and practice delayed, denied, or otherwise frustrated the 
        efforts of African-American farmers to obtain loan assistance 
        and to engage in the vocation of farming.
            (2) In January 1999, the United States District Court of 
        the District of Columbia approved the largest civil rights 
        settlement in the history of the United States. Following the 
        settlement, the African-American farmers and the USDA entered 
        into a five-year consent decree.
            (3) In April 1999, the court approved the settlement and 
        assigned four entities to facilitate implementation of the 
        consent decree.
            (4) According to a USDA Inspector General report, many 
        discrimination complaints were never processed, investigated, 
        or otherwise resolved, and the discrimination complaint process 
        at the Farm Services Agency lacked ``integrity, direction, and 
        accountability''.
            (5) Delays in processing the discrimination claims of many 
        African-American farmers resulted in numerous farmers losing 
        their right to file claims.
            (6) As of July 14, 2000, the statute of limitations 
        provided under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act has run on many 
        of the claims.
            (7) On November 18, 2004, the Subcommittee on the 
        Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 
        Representatives received sworn testimony that alleged serious 
        violations of the right to notice as it applied to the consent 
        decree and to all those who had viable claims of discrimination 
        against the USDA.
            (8) Such testimony further alleged that although the 
        consent decree notice campaign was deemed to be effective by 
        the court, that campaign proved deficient because approximately 
        66,000 potential class members submitted their claims in an 
        untimely fashion.
            (9) Approximately 73,800 petitions were filed before the 
        September 15, 2000, late filing deadline, of which only 2,131 
        were approved.
            (10) Of the approximately 21,000 timely requests for 
        reconsideration, 10,745 of those requests have been decided, 
        but only 140 have been approved.
    (b) De Novo Review of Certain Claims Filed in Pigford v. Veneman.--
A person who submitted a petition for redress in the settlement of the 
relevant case before the date of the enactment of this Act may obtain 
de novo consideration of the petition before an adjudicator assigned by 
the facilitator of the consent decree of such case if--
            (1) the petition was denied on the grounds of untimely 
        filing;
            (2) not later than one year after the date of the enactment 
        of this Act, such person submits a subsequent petition for 
        redress in such settlement; and
            (3) such person submits an affidavit to the adjudicator 
        asserting that such person did not receive effective notice of 
        the filing deadline in such consent decree.
    (c) Notice to USDA.--Not later than 30 days after a person submits 
a petition pursuant to subsection (b)(2), the facilitator of the 
consent decree of the relevant case shall provide notice to the 
Secretary of Agriculture of such petition.
    (d) Loan Data.--
            (1) Report to person submitting petition.--Not later than 
        60 days after the Secretary of Agriculture receives notice 
        pursuant to subsection (c) of a petition filed pursuant to 
        subsection (b)(2), the Secretary shall provide to the person 
        that filed such petition a report on farm credit loans made 
        within the claimant's State by the Department during the period 
        beginning on January 1, 1992, and ending on the date of the 
        enactment of this Act. Such report shall contain information on 
        all persons whose application for a loan was accepted, 
        including--
                    (A) the race of the applicant;
                    (B) the date of application;
                    (C) the date of the loan decision;
                    (D) the location of the office making the loan 
                decision; and
                    (E) all data relevant to the process of deciding on 
                the loan.
            (2) No personally identifiable information.--The reports 
        provided pursuant to paragraph (1) shall not contain any 
        information that would identify any person that applied for a 
        loan from the Department of Agriculture.
    (e) Limitation on Foreclosures.--Notwithstanding any other 
provision of law, the Secretary of Agriculture may not foreclose a loan 
if the borrower makes a prima facie case to an adjudicator assigned by 
the facilitator of the consent decree of the relevant case that the 
foreclosure is proximately related to discrimination by the Department 
of Agriculture.
    (f) Notice.--
            (1) Known class members.--Not later than 45 days after the 
        date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture 
        shall provide to all known members of the class in the relevant 
        case notice of the de novo review available under subsection 
        (b).
            (2) Advertisements.--The Secretary of Agriculture shall 
        announce the de novo review available under subsection (b) by 
        arranging to--
                    (A) broadcast 40 commercials on the cable, 
                Internet, network, and radio broadcast outlets 
                throughout the United States with the largest African-
                American audiences during a 30-day period;
                    (B) broadcast 40 commercials on the cable, 
                Internet, network, and radio broadcast outlets in the 
                relevant region with the largest African-American 
                audiences during a 30-day period;
                    (C) broadcast 50 commercials on the cable, 
                Internet, network, and radio broadcast outlets with the 
                largest national audiences during a 30-day period;
                    (D) have one-quarter page advertisements placed in 
                27 general circulation newspapers and 115 African-
                American newspapers in the relevant region during a 14-
                day period;
                    (E) have a full page advertisement placed in the 
                editions of the magazine TV Guide that are distributed 
                in the relevant region; and
                    (F) have half-page advertisements placed in the 
                national editions of magazines with the highest 
                percentages of African-American readership.
    (g) Monitor.--
            (1) Selection.--Not later than 45 days after the date of 
        the enactment of this Act, the parties to the relevant case 
        shall select an independent Monitor who shall report directly 
        to the Secretary of Agriculture. If the parties are unable to 
        agree on a Monitor after good faith negotiations, the 
        plaintiffs and the defendants shall each submit two persons to 
        the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the 
        District of Columbia Circuit who shall appoint a Monitor from 
        among such persons.
            (2) Duties.--The Monitor--
                    (A) not later than 180 days after the date of the 
                enactment of this Act, and at least semiannually 
                thereafter, shall submit to the Secretary of 
                Agriculture and make publicly available on the Internet 
                a report detailing the implementation of this Act and 
                whether such implementation is being done in good 
                faith;
                    (B) if the Monitor determines that a clear and 
                manifest error has occurred in the screening, 
                adjudication, or arbitration of a claim and such error 
                has resulted or is likely to result in a fundamental 
                miscarriage of justice, may direct the adjudicator or 
                facilitator to review the claim;
                    (C) shall be available to class members and the 
                public through a toll-free telephone number in order to 
                facilitate the lodging of any complaints relating to 
                this Act or the consent decree of the relevant case and 
                to expedite the resolution of such complaints; and
                    (D) if the Monitor is unable to resolve a problem 
                brought to the attention of the Monitor pursuant to 
                subparagraph (C), may file a report with the counsels 
                of the parties who may then seek enforcement of this 
                Act and such consent decree pursuant to paragraph 13 of 
                such consent decree.
            (3) Term.--The Monitor shall remain in existence for a 
        period of 5 years and shall not be removed except for good 
        cause.
            (4) Expenses.--The Secretary of Agriculture shall pay the 
        fees and expenses of the Monitor.
    (h) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Largest african-american audiences.--The term ``largest 
        African-American audiences'' means those audiences determined 
        to have the largest number of African-American listeners, 
        viewers, or users as determined by the Arbitron or Nielsen 
        rating systems.
            (2) Largest national audiences.--The term ``largest 
        national audiences'' means those audiences determined to have 
        the largest number of listeners, viewers, or users as 
        determined by the Arbitron or Nielsen rating systems.
            (3) Relevant case.--The term ``relevant case'' means the 
        consolidated class action lawsuits entitled Pigford v. Veneman 
        and Brewington v. Veneman (United States District Court for the 
        District of Columbia, Civil Action Numbers 97-1978 and 98-
        1693).
            (4) Relevant region.--The term ``relevant region'' means 
        the States of Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, 
        Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, 
        Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West 
        Virginia and the District of Columbia.
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