Judge halts minority-only USDA debt forgiveness program

The Department of Agriculture may not use a farmer’s race or ethnicity as a determinant of his or her eligibility for debt forgiveness, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.

Judge Reed O’Connor issued a preliminary injunction to stop the Biden administration from discriminating on account of race or ethnicity in administering a provision of the American Rescue Plan providing “socially disadvantaged” farmers, which the Department of Agriculture considers to be any who are African American, Native American, Hispanic, Asian American, or Pacific Islander, with loan forgiveness of up to 120% of their federal Farm Service Agency loan balances as of Jan. 1.