Bishop blasts internet video

[Casino67]

AlbanyHerald.com:

ALBANY — An internet video surfaced Tuesday in which a black farmer, Eddie Slaughter of Buena Vista, accuses Rep. Sanford Bishop Jr., D-Albany, of being aware of fraud in the $1 billion Pigford farm discrimination settlement. That prompted a sharp and angry reaction from the congressman.

"Yes, I am aware that there is fraud in the program, that's why anti-fraud provisions were written into the settlement," Bishop said Thursday morning "My job was to help secure funding for constituents who had been discriminated against by the USDA. It's not my job to monitor fraud in the program. I can't assume responsibility for fraud. You can't lay that at my feet.

"This is ridiculous. It's not my job to determine who is a qualified claimant or not, or who gets paid or who doesn't get paid."

The settlement was the result of a class action lawsuit filed in 1997 by black farmer Timothy Pigford against the United States Department of Agriculture and then-Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman.

According to Wikipedia, the suit alleged the USDA discriminated against black farmers when deciding to allocate price support loans, disaster payments for farm ownership and operating loans, and that the USDA had failed to process subsequent complaints about racial discrimination.

The suit was settled in 1999 under a consent decree where all black farmers were to be paid $50,000 and granted certain loan forgiveness and tax offsets.

In the video, Slaughter said he met with Bishop in the congressman's Columbus office, where he told him that the program was rife with fraud with payments being made to people who lacked farm ID numbers or weren't farmers at all.

"I've worked with Eddie Slaughter for more than 15 years and met with him about the slow progress in the Pigford case moving forward,"
Bishop said. "He is also a Pigford claimant. I cannot assume any responsibility for any allegations he is making.

"Right now I would describe him as a disgruntled constituent."

Slaughter did not return phone calls requesting comment.

//END//

_____________________

Not my job to monitor fraud. Typical of too many Congress critters today.