Rep. King’s amendment failed – here’s the roll call vote. Every Democrat voted against it – but it lost because 78 Republicans also went against stopping over a billion dollars in money being paid out for fraud. Two votes jumped out at me.

Tea Party favorite Allen West (R-FL) voted with the Congressional Black Caucus to keep Pigford funding flowing to fraudsters.

But worse, Darrell Issa (R-CA), who would be the one to get investigations going.

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Here’s a chance to stop the Pigford fraud in its tracks – Rep. Steve King (R – IA) has introduced an amendment to halt Pigford Funding. This is about the multi-billion dollar “Black Farmers Settlement” that we’ve been exposing as a fraud for over six months at BigGovernment.com

The last time that King tried to introduce a bill to stop Pigford II funding last year, he was blocked by the Democrat controlled congress and it wasn’t allowed to come up for a vote. Now we have a chance to do the right thing and end the fraud.

You can make a difference, right now – this is a vote we can win.

You just need to make 4 quick calls, visit one site and then send and email or a Tweet.

1. Call your Congressman and tell them you support Rep. Steve King’s amendment to stop Pigford II funding. This is especially important if you have a GOP Congressman.

Not sure who your Congressperson is or how to teach them? Use this website.

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For some people, it seems hard to believe that the government would actually give $50,000 checks in what is supposed to be a “farmers settlement” to people who never farmed a day in their life. It sounds outrageous to believe that the government would give billions of dollars away to people who have no proof that they even filled out an application with the USDA.

Don’t take my word for it – just ask Obama administration. They are actively advertising the fact that any woman can be eligible to receive up to $50,000 for claiming – without proof — that the USDA refused to give her a loan application.

This is from the FAQ on the official government website FarmerClaims.gov

Who is Covered?

I went into the USDA office and they wouldn’t provide me an application, so I don’t have a denial letter or anything from USDA. Am I eligible for a claim and if so what do I need to provide?

You may be eligible to submit a claim depending on your specific circumstances. You may request a claims package and review the eligibility criteria contained in the claims package. If you have questions, you may consult with counsel or another legal service provider.

Click the link and look for yourself. You need the same information in Spanish? After all, there’s also a “Hispanic farmers” settlement . No problema – aqui!

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In testimony before a congressional committee in 2008, John Boyd introduced himself and said “I am Dr. John Boyd. I am President and founder of the National Black Farmers Association, which has more than 94,000 members in 46 states.”

In addition to my strong back in agriculture, I also founded the John Boyd Agricultural and Technology Institute to help educate farmers of all educational levels in order to fight illiteracy. To teach familiarity with and use of the internet, and much more. The program has assisted several thousand farmers and has been expanded to Denmark Technical College.

Boyd’s National Black Farmers Association website has a page about the John Boyd Argicultural and Technology Institute as well — complete with a photo showing a road sign.

In a ‘10 Questions’ article in 2009, John Boyd began one of his answers by prefacing, “Being a visiting professor and forming the John Boyd Agriculture and Technology Institute”.

As I was driving through Virginia yesterday, I decided to take a drive by the Boyd Institute and hoped to walk the hallowed halls that have taught thousands of farmers. Boyd has talked about the Boyd Institute so much that I was keen to visit this august institute.

But there’s no there there. Literally.

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Pigford documentarian Lee Stranahan had an exclusive interview with congressman Steve King at his Capitol Hill office Tuesday where King explains an area where he and Shirley Sherrod agree — that the Obama White House was responsible for Sherrod’s resignation and that USDA secretary acted as the fall guy.

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How easy is it to file a false claim in the Pigford settlement?

Have people been signing up for Pigford under the belief that it’s reparations for slavery?

Was the settlement intended to help black farmers hijacked to benefit people who had never farmed?

There has been conjecture and circumstantial evidence about these controversial questions surrounding the Pigford “Black Farmers” settlement for years but a complicit mainstream media’s lack of serious investigation has meant there has been little ‘hard evidence’ to prove or disprove these allegations.

Until now.

On Thursday, February 10th, at CPAC, I will release to the press, bloggers and citizen journalists two hours of complete, unedited audio of a behind-closed-doors meeting directly related to the Pigford case that show direct evidence of fraud and abuse in the settlement. This audio will be released with a set of notes making it easier to navigate and find specific sections and statements.

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If you know anything about my background at all, you know I’m a liberal. I’ve been posting stories about the  Pigford scandal here on BigGov and my usual haunt, the Huffington Post. I’ve worked for MoveOn.org and Brave New Films. I voted for Obama although like many progressives, I’m not thrilled with him.

So, since I’m the stranger in a strange land here on the Bigs, maybe you nice conservatives can explain something to me — why hasn’t the right wing blogosphere picked up on Pigford?

Don’t get me wrong. The mainstream media hasn’t picked up on it either and I’m willing to grant that most of the MSM leans left. The left wing blogosphere has totally ignored the Pigford reporting I and others here have done. But I UNDERSTAND that. This story isn’t good for Democrats.

But where are your guys?

I mean, we have a congressman, Sanford Bishop — a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, for goshsake — admitting he knew about fraud. Admitting it to newspapers. Where’s Rush or Fox News or Malkin or Red State or Coulter or Beck, or…anyone? Instapundit has covered it. Derbyshire did a piece on Pigford a few weeks back but didn’t mention the stuff on this site. And that’s about it.

Again. Democratic Congress. Fraud. Scandal. Billions. And — crickets on the right.

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From Georgia’s Albany Herald:

In April of 1999, Judge Paul L. Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia approved a settlement agreement and consent decree in Pigford v. Glickman, a class action discrimination suit between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and black farmers.

The suit claimed that the agency had discriminated against black farmers on the basis of race and failed to investigate or properly respond to complaints from 1983 to 1997.

According to a report from the Congressional Research Service, “For many years, black farmers had complained that they were not receiving fair treatment when they applied to local county committees (which make the decisions) for farm loans or assistance. These farmers alleged that they were being denied USDA farm loans or forced to wait longer for loan approval than were non-minority farmers.”

“Many black farmers contended that they were facing foreclosure and financial ruin because the USDA denied them timely loans and debt restructuring.”

To date, more than $1 billion has been paid in $50,000 increments to more than 13,000 black farmers. The rub is, according to Buena Vista farmer Eddie Slaughter, many of the recipients of the settlement money are not farmers at all.

According to a July 2010 report by Kate Pickert in Time.com, the largest single settlement under Pigford went to Shirley and Charles Sherrod, who were awarded $150,000 each for pain and suffering and $13 million for the defunct New Communities Inc. farms.

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For weeks now, our readers have asked a consistent question about Pigford — “Can I get a quick, clear explanation about what Pigford is and why it’s important so I can explain this to friends who don’t want to read a 30 page report?”

Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA) has given us an answer.

Here’s the quick pitch — Sanford Bishop is the congressman who admitted he knew about massive fraud in the Pigford settlement that was supposed to help black farmers but when confronted by farmers hurt by the Pigford settlement, he says it’s not his job to do anything about fraud.

Why is Pigford important? Because it’s a perfect example of everything conservatives and libertarians — and, hopefully, honest liberals — hate about government spending programs that cost billions, create fraud and waste, promote vote buying and don’t even solve the problem they set out to fix.

And it’s been covered up and falsely promoted by the media for over a decade now. Repeat after me: The actual black farmers were intentionally hurt more by Pigford.

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Nearly two weeks ago, I did two interviews with farmers in Georgia who both made a serious accusation against Congressman Sanford Bishop related to the Pigford v. Glickman black farmers settlement — that when they brought up excessive lawyer fees and allegations of fraud, the congressman told them that an investigation of those issues might “shut down” the settlement.

Here are the clips I posted with farmers Eddie Slaughter and Willie Head.

Within a couple of days, Congressman Bishop responded to three different newspapers. His story was different each time.

• Rep. Bishop told the Albany Herald that he was aware of the fraud but it wasn’t his job to police it. This admission is significant because USDA Sec. Tom Vilsack has claimed that there was almost no fraud in Pigford.
• When speaking to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Rep. Bishop was suddenly stunned and perplexed and suggested that the farmers had been drinking.
• Most recently, Rep. Bishop told the Columbus Ledger-Inquirer him that he remembered the meeting, repeated that he wasn’t responsible for monitoring fraud, suggested that there were antifraud provisions in the second Pigford bill and again insulted the farmers calling them disgruntled and irresponsible.

In order to clear up some of the issues raised by Congressman Bishop and these newspapers, tonight I recorded a phone interview with Willie Head.

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As the Pigford investigation continues, it is important to note that we have demonstrated in our Pigford Report that there is massive fraud in the Pigford I settlement, but you have yet to hear a pro-Pigford politician admit to that fact.  To this day, President Obama’s Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack maintains there are, at most, 10 cases of fraud. Big Government showed two videos of black farmers alleging that Congressman Sanford Bishop not only knew about the fraud in Pigford I, but also instructed the black farmers who brought the information to light to keep quiet as long as “the money was flowing.”

It’s important to note that Eddie Slaughter is not just a black farmer, he is the Vice President of one of the largest black farmer advocacy groups in America, the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association.

After seeing the BigGovernment.com interview, Congressman Bishop, clearly upset with the video revelation, made the following admission to his local paper, the Albany Herald yesterday:

“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.”

“I’ve worked with Eddie Slaughter for more than 15 years.”

We now have an admission from a prominent member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and a co-sponsor of Pigford legislation, that he was not only told by a black farmer that the Pigford I payout process was “rife with fraud,” but also that as a member of Congress there was nothing he could do about it. (more…)

NOTE : Compare Rep. Sanford Bishop’s (D-Ga) statements in this article (published at 6pm) with what he said in this Albany Herald article that was published at 11:30am. In the earlier article Bishop says he was aware of the fraud and it wasn’t his job to police it. By the time he talked to the Atlanta reporter later in the day, he suddenly has no idea at all what the farmers are talking about and insults them by implying that they were drunkards.

From Bob Keefe at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

WASHINGTON — Democratic U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop called Internet insinuations that he was somehow involved in fraud surrounding last year’s settlement between the government and African-American farmers “one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard.”

Videos featuring two Georgia farmers that are being circulated on the Web by conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart hint that Bishop, of Albany, may have known about possible fraud in last year’s so-called “Pigford” settlement between the government and black farmers who claimed that a Department of Agriculture farm loan program discriminated against them.

“I don’t know what they were imbibing,” Bishop said of the two farmers after watching the videos. “I’m just perplexed and shocked.” (more…)

**UPDATED**

The videos that Big Government broke yesterday showing farmers Eddie Slaughter and Willie Head saying that congressman Sanford Bishop knew about fraud in the Pigford Settlement appear to have broken Congressman Bishop. An angry Bishop called the local paper in Albany, Georgia and far from denying the claims that he know about fraud and did nothing about it, he readily admits it.

***

From the Albany Herald in Albany, Georgia:

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.”

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In this video clip, Willie Head discusses his dealing with Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA) including the meeting that Eddie Slaughter describes in an earlier post.

The hours of interviews I’ve done with the key people involved in the Pigford settlement are a treasure trove of information about what really happened in this multi-billion dollar debacle. Because of the holidays and then the tragic shooting in Tuscon, I wanted to hold off on releasing details about some of the major news that we’re been able to uncover — but at the risk of creating PiggieFatigue, here’s part one of a serious allegation that a U.S. Congressman knowingly was complicit in covering up fraud.

In this bombshell video clip, Georgia farmer Eddie Slaughter alleges that he told his congressman, Congressional Black Caucus member Sanford Bishop, about fraud in Pigford on multiple occasions and that Bishop responded that Slaughter should be quiet because “they’ll shut this thing down.”

This isn’t an isolated incident with Congressman Bishop.

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