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USDA LAWSUIT PAYMENT COMING SLOWLY

April 30, 2001 — Another chapter in the long-running story of discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture against people of color is almost closed.
In February, a lawyer representing black farmers and others across the country who had filed a class-action suit against the USDA for discriminatory practices wrote to Delegate to Congress Donna Christian Christensen asking her assistance for the 30 to 50 Virgin Islander who were encountering difficulty in getting their full settlement amounts.
Under the class action, each participant is entitled to receive $50,000 in cash and to have any debt affected by the discrimination written off. Each person is also supposed to have $12,500 deposited in his/her name with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to be applied to any tax liability on the $50,000 payment, Christensen said. But since Virgin Islanders pay taxes to the V.I. Internal Revenue Bureau instead of the IRS and the terms of the settlement state that tax payments are to be made to the IRS, the federal government had been unwilling to transfer the tax monies to the Virgin Islands IRB, she said.
"I understand that an agreement has been reached with the (U.S.) Department of Justice clearing the way for the payment of the taxes, thereby ensuring that Virgin Islands participants in the class action will get the full amount of the damage payments," Christensen said. "This may net the Virgin Islands treasury $325,000 to $625,000 in tax revenue."
The lawsuit stems from practices conducted by USDA officials who placed the names of African-American and Hispanic Virgin Islanders seeking loan applications on a waiting list while giving applications to whites. The time span for the suit was from between 1981 to 2000.
The suit followed another class action against the USDA by some 5,000 black, stateside farmers. In that suit, settled in early 1999, a settlement was reached that paid $50,000 to individual black farmers who were discriminated against in the 1980s and '90s. The settlement also excused farmers' debts to the USDA.
Christensen, meanwhile, said she wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft last week to thank the Department of Justice for resolving the issue of the payment of the taxes of the participants from the U.S. Virgin Islands. However, she said she was also informed that there may be a delay in the implementation of the agreement and has asked the Justice Department to "expedite the transfer."

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