The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Monday, claiming the agency is continuing discriminatory practices established under the Biden administration.
WILL filed suit against USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins in federal court on behalf of Adam Faust, a dairy farmer from Chilton, Wisconsin. The lawsuit alleges that the USDA has preserved three programs that violate the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause by disproportionately benefiting minority and female farmers.
“Farmers, like all other Americans, deserve to be assessed as individuals, not as statistics or as means toward achieving some quota, preference, or balancing based on race or sex,” the lawsuit reads.
The current lawsuit highlights three USDA programs in particular that continue to apply race and sex-based preferences: the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) Program, the Loan Guarantee Program and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).
The DMC provides financial assistance to dairy producers when the margin between milk and feed prices drops below a certain threshold. However, the lawsuit claims that minority and female farmers are exempt from the annual administrative fee that white farmers like Faust are required to pay.
Under the Loan Guarantee Program, Faust is eligible for a 90% loan guarantee, while minority and female farmers may receive a 95% loan guarantee, according to the lawsuit. The EQIP offers minority farmers reimbursement for 90% of their costs, whereas Fuast is eligible for reimbursement of only 75%.
In 2021, Faust filed a lawsuit against the USDA during the Biden administration for the Farmer Loan Forgiveness Plan, which a federal court determined unconstitutionally discriminated based on race.
WILL notified the USDA in April of over two dozen race-based programs and warned that it would sue if they were not addressed within 60 days. Moreover, in May, members of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation also called on the USDA to investigate the claims made by WILL and Faust.
The USDA did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
“We warned USDA and the Trump Administration: the Biden-era discriminatory programs must go. We’ve been patient, but equality cannot wait,” said WILL Deputy Legal Counsel Dan Lennington in a public statement. “While President Trump has been perfectly clear that racial discrimination has no place in his Administration, USDA remains a notable hold out.”
“The USDA should honor the President’s promise to the American people to end racial discrimination in the federal government. After being ignored by a federal agency that’s meant to support agriculture, I hope my lawsuit brings answers, accountability, and results from USDA,” Faust commented in the statement.
On Jan 21, Trump signed an executive order titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” directing all executive departments to terminate all discriminatory and illegal policies. As trade tensions with China were escalating in April, Rollins said she would work with lawmakers to secure the necessary funding if the trade war continues to negatively impact agricultural exports.
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