Clyburn Statement On Senate Passage Of Pigford, Cobell Settlement Funding

Statement

House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-SC) today released the following statement after the United States Senate finally funded the landmark settlements reached in the Pigford v. Vilsack and Cobell v. Salazar class action lawsuits. The Pigford II settlement agreement will provide a total of $1.15 billion to African American farmers who suffered racial discrimination in the USDA loan program, and 3.4 billion for Native American families.

"Today is a great day for our nation's black farmers and Native Americans who were discriminated against by their own government for years. For more than a decade, political gamesmanship prevented thousands of our nation's black farmers from receiving the settlement fairly awarded to them. What happened to our nation's African American farmers and Native Americans was wrong, and we are now making a significant step to make it right. President Obama's leadership on this issue is to be commended, and I especially want to thank my colleagues in the Congressional black caucus for keeping the focus on this issue. Funding for the Cobell v. Salazar settlement would not have happened without the leadership of Senators Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad and I thank both of them for their leadership. We never stopped fighting and I look forward to rounding up the votes for this bill and sending it to the President for his signature."

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