The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it is not responsible for denying 90 percent of the claims in a discrimination settlement for African-American farmers.

The department says the court handling the $2.3 billion settlement rejected the farmers. So far, only $657 million, to 13,151 claimants, has been paid.

But according to a report from the Environmental Working Group, USDA spent $12 million to fight the farmers aggressively in the court. The report says USDA denied information that could have helped the farmers.

The lawyers who handled the lawsuit filed another one on behalf of Native American farmers. The case is still in the courts.

Get the Story:
Black Farmers Accuse Agriculture Dept. of Failing to Live Up to Racial Bias Settlement (The New York Times 7/21)
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Relevant Links:
Black Farmers, Environmental Working Group - http://www.ewg.org/reports/blackfarmers

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