April D. Ryan

In recent weeks, dispite Ethics Committee findings, Democrats on the Hill have been standing by Congressman Charlie Rangle. One Democrat who wishes not to be identified said, Rangel would not be asked to step down unless his presence as Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee is toxic for Democrats in the November Elections.

Friday at the White House, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about controversies surrounding Congressman Charlie Rangel and the Ethics Committees findings.

Q And the last thing, does the President agree with Speaker Pelosi’s decision to keep Chairman Rangel in his position, given the Ethics Committee findings? 

MR. GIBBS: Look, Savannah, I think that — the President is not going to get involved in internal House matters as it relates to Chairman –

Q Does he have an opinion about it?

MR. GIBBS: Well, I would say this. The President has worked on ethics reform as a state senator, as a United States senator, and has proposed and enacted reforms as President. He has said many times in those debates that he believes that rules are put in place for a reason, and that those rules can and must apply to each and every person. He would expect that members of both the House and the Senate understand and ought to be accountable for following those rules and that any violations would be acted on by the House and the Senate as appropriate — and that applies to everyone.

Discrimination of minority farmers by employees at the United States Department of Agriculture may be more pervasive than originally thought.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack contends Latinos, Native Americans and women have open complaints of discrimination before the Justice Department.  The White House and the Department of Agriculture have encouraged the Justice Department to engage with the plantiff’s attorneys. 

Since presiding over the Department during the past year, Vilsack reveals, “some of the Hispanic farmer grievances are not part of class action cases and Hispanics could have tens of thousands of lawsuits” against the agency.  In this instance, there are “individual cases representing individual farmers.”

Vilsack is adamant the cases are things of the past dating back 10 to 20 years ago on various issues.  He says “It could be farm loans, it could be rural development, it could be folks who felt they were discriminated against based on farming operations in efforts to get farm loans or guarantees.”

An internal review of operations, promotions and hiring at the Department of Agriculture is underway. The effort is to “reduce the number of civil rights and equal opportunity complaints.  Also, a consultant is conducting an external audit of programs to find “other problem areas that could give rise to future complaints,” confirms Vilsack. 

“This is a new day at the Department of Agriculture says Secretary Vilsak. 

Currently, 80 to 90 thousand black farmers have been waiting 15 years for financial restitution after a discrimination settlement in the Pigford ll class action lawsuit.  The lawsuit stems from discrimination in the USDA’s Farm Loan Program.

President Obama appropriated 1.25 billion dollars in his 2011 budget for the black farmers. The deadline for Congressional approval is March 31, 2010.