[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 24, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H796]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           WOMEN FARMERS BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Equality for Women 
Farmers Act, a bill Congresswoman Anna Eshoo of California and I have 
introduced. It aims to close an ugly chapter in our history and end a 
systematic legacy of discrimination at the Department of Agriculture.
  Our bill provides a process for women farmers who have experienced 
discrimination to make claims against a compensation fund appropriated 
by the Congress. It requires USDA to institute the much-needed reforms 
that will end this shameful gender discrimination in their loan system 
forever.
  According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there are 
approximately 300,000 women farm operators across the United States, 
which is over 17 percent of the family farmer population. This is by 
far the largest group of minority farmers in the country, and their 
numbers are growing. And yet new census data recently revealed that 
women farmers have been consistently underreported by USDA over the 
past 15 years. Worse, it is estimated 43,000 women farmers have been 
discriminatorily denied more than $4.6 billion in farm loans and loan 
services from the USDA over the years. In fact, by USDA's own 
reckoning, women have seen less than their fair share of loans in every 
single State in the country.
  Like male farmers, tens of thousands of women have gone to local 
offices of the Farm Security Administration over the years to file loan 
applications and ask for this government's help in sustaining their 
family farms. But there the differences often end. Many women have been 
told that money or applications had run out even though men seem to be 
finding them with no trouble at all. Others were told to return to the 
loan office with their fathers or husbands or brothers so that the men 
could file the applications on their behalf. Still others were told 
that ``farming is not for women'' or saw their applications filed in 
the trash right before their eyes. Some were even subjected to crude 
and horrible advances by loan administrators who demanded a sexual quid 
pro quo in return for approving their loans. This is simply not right. 
It is beneath us and it must end.
  To his credit, Secretary Vilsack has initiated a task force to look 
into these and similar civil rights issues at USDA, but we also need to 
move here in the Congress and quickly, if nothing else so that these 
women can get the resources that they now need to preserve their family 
farms in this troubling economy.
  Unfortunately, this subject of discrimination by USDA loan and credit 
officers is not a new one. In fact, only 2 years ago Congress was so 
moved by the lengthy history of discrimination and long-pending 
lawsuits brought by minority and socially disadvantaged farmers that we 
addressed the situation in the 2008 farm bill. That provision urged the 
Bush administration to settle those discrimination lawsuits brought by 
women and other minority farmers.
  Just last week the Obama administration announced that it had reached 
an agreement to settle the remaining claims for African-American 
farmers who experienced similar discrimination. While I applaud the 
administration for recognizing the need to settle these important 
claims, I am dismayed that they did not come forth with a more 
comprehensive proposal to settle claims for women, Hispanic, and Native 
American farmers who have suffered similar prejudice.
  It's time for us to own up to the mistreatment of women and other 
minority farmers as well. They have had to deal with needless, mindless 
discrimination as they have tried to preserve their family farms. This 
Congress should grant them the compensation and the damages they are 
due.
  What would the bill do? It establishes a compensation fund of $4.6 
billion for these farmers. It sets up a Special Master in the Federal 
Mediation and Conciliation Service to process, review, and adjudicate 
their claims. The Special Master will award eligible claimants who were 
denied loan applications or whose applications were not acted upon 
$5,000 in damages.
  For eligible claimants who were denied farm loans, loan benefits, or 
loan servicing, whose damages are presumably greater than those denied 
applications, the Special Master may also award additional damages 
based upon the application of a formula described in the legislation.

                              {time}  1645

  For those who will seek to apply for loans and loan management in the 
future, the legislation will ensure that their requests are finally 
considered equally with all others. This is a matter of fundamental 
fairness. And action cannot come soon enough for these women who have 
suffered under these discriminatory practices. So please join me in 
being part of this solution. We can help make whole these women who 
have suffered so much, and we can make USDA a better resource for our 
nation's family farmers for generations to come, regardless of their 
gender, race or origin.
  From our earliest days, the small family farm has been considered the 
bedrock of this nation, the font of its virtue and its citizenship. 
``Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God,'' wrote 
Thomas Jefferson, ``if ever He had a chosen people.'' Our Founding 
Fathers strongly believed our government should be there to help 
America's family farmers, not to undermine them at every turn.
  As such, it is time to do right by all of these family farmers that 
have been discriminated against in our past and present. And I invite 
my colleagues to join with us to reach a solution to settle these 
discriminatory claims. It is time to live up to our founding 
principles, to do right by our family farmers no matter what their race 
or sex, and to legislate an end to this unfortunate and regrettable 
era.

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