Posted on 11/19/2010 4:36:28 PM PST by Dallas59
WASHINGTON The Senate has approved almost $4.6 billion to settle long-standing claims brought by American Indians and black farmers against the government.
The money has been held up for months in the Senate as Democrats and Republicans squabbled over how to pay for it. The two class action lawsuits were filed over a decade ago.
The settlements include almost $1.2 billion for black farmers who say they suffered discrimination at the hands of the Agriculture Department. Also, $3.4 billion would go to Indian landowners who claim they were swindled out of royalties by the Interior Department. The legislation was approved in the Senate by voice vote Friday and sent to the House.
Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe from Browning, Mont. and the lead plaintiff in the Indian case, said Friday that it took her breath away when she found out the Senate had passed the bill. She was feeling despondent after the chamber had tried and failed to pass the legislation many times and two people who would have been beneficiaries had died on her reservation this week.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
remind me, who are the slaves?
As a member of the smallest minority in the world (natural redheads) I certainly want my take! We even own some actual land we could farm....
Why aren’t sovereign immunity laws in place to protect taxpayers from this kind of crap.
The bill passed Friday would be partially paid for by diverting dollars from a surplus in nutrition programs for women and children and by extending customs user fees.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said with the passage of the Cobell settlement: “This is a day that will be etched in our memories and our history books.”
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Pigford reparations ping!
What? This passed today?
Yet these same turds want to CUT money for the military.
I’m a little ignorant on this subject, how many black and or farmers could there have been? And why were ALL of them discriminated against? I don’t understand ....
:03
GMTA!
Scheduled 15 rounder
Sounds an awful lot like the Pigford scandal that Andrew Breitbart has been discussing lately.
So what republicans voted for this. Do we have a Bill# ?
This was supposed to have gone thru intensive review before the awards. Mainly because there were bogus farmers and faked documents. But hurry, hurry, get it through before Darrel Issa can get his hands on it.
Where’s my take???
For pete’s sake can’t you at least wait until they pass the Food Control Bill?
I like your minority club...I too am in that minority. Another $4.6 B for us please!
how about us farm kids who had to milk cows.. Now we like to pull the hair out of our noses in our old age because as kids we had to milk cows before going to school and the smell of lactation on our hands precluded normal kids activities of "nose picking". Then of course we had to help milking when we got home....well figure out the rest of the story of child neglect....
This just proves that the pubs in the senate and congress are still monumental moral cowards!
Everyone who has studied this Pigsford case knows that it is a damn scam and riddled with fraud and corruption!
Pathetic!!
This is damn ridiculous. They have already paid this before. Every black person that was discriminated against could be paid a million and it would not cost us near this much. This is a rip off.
AND I want a big screen TV and rims!
Is there any requirement to PROVE you were a black farmer, or do they just show up?
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