Release & Contact Info
Press Release
Contact: Saleisha Averhart
Email: saleisha@wbaalaw.com
RALEIGH, August 14, 2024 – On July 31, 2024, The Biden-Harris Administration announced it has issued payments to eligible applicants under the Inflation Reduction Act’s Discrimination Financial Assistance Program (DFAP), which aims to provide financial assistance to farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners who experienced discrimination prior to January 2021. The full press release can be found on here.
Some relevant materials from the press release is provided below.
United Stated Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack quotes “I am also immensely grateful to USDA’s many partners in this effort, including the organizations who helped spread the word and offer technical assistance to applicants. This process, and the information contained in the applications, will help USDA as we fine tune our efforts to make USDA programs accessible, inclusive and equitable to all.” Wallis, Bowens, Averhart, and Associates is one of these organizations.
The Discrimination Financial Assistance Program was established by Section 22007 of the Inflation Reduction Act. Through the Act, Congress allocated $2.2 billion for the program and directed USDA to provide financial assistance to farmers, ranchers and forest landowners who experienced discrimination in USDA farm lending programs prior to January 2021. Upon signing of the law by President Biden, USDA worked immediately and diligently to design the program in accordance with the statute, sought significant stakeholder input, and opened the application process in July 2023.
One year later, over 43,000 individuals, including individuals in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa, will receive financial assistance through the program. The assistance will help many of them continue farming or enhance their operations, will allow some to begin farming, or in other cases will help to ease lost income.
The recipients include over 23,000 individuals who have or had a farming or ranching operation, who are receiving between $10,000 and $500,000 of assistance, with an average of nearly $82,000. Recipients also include over 20,000 individuals who planned to have a farming or ranching operation, but reported they were unable to do so because they couldn’t get a USDA loan. These individuals are receiving between $3,500 and $6,000 of assistance, with an average of $5000.
More information about the awards, including geographic distribution, can be found on the program website.
The DFAP is an application-based financial assistance program that is built around the amount of funding Congress provided for this program and is not a compensation program. It is an important component of USDA’s work under the Biden-Harris Administration to make USDA programs more accessible, equitable and inclusive for all who want to participate in agriculture.
This program has received wide coverage by major news outlets.
– Wallis, Bowens, Averhart, & Associates, PLLC