Rep. Steve King (R-IA) accused U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack of knowing that women and minority farmers fraudulently claimed discrimination to receive taxpayer-funded settlements, and they knowingly initiated more programs to facilitate more of these payments.
“It is my sense they know what they are doing,” King said on “Breitbart News Sunday” on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125. “That’s a heavy statement, but they knew what they were doing. They knew these were fraudulent claims.”
King said as he “watched the actions of the USDA” under Agriculture Secretary Vilsack and the Justice Department under Attorney General Eric Holder, both of whom he has questioned as a member of the Agriculture and Judiciary Committees, he determined that Vilsack and Holder were not only “facilitating what was already there” regarding Pigford when they arrived.
He charged them with initiating more actions to help Hispanic, Native American and female farmers get settlements even with the knowledge that many of those were fraudulent.
King said Holder and Vilsack knew the program was “rife with fraud” and noted Holder currently has access to and control of the fund used to dole out settlement dollars while Congress does not have oversight over it, which King hoped would change.
The Iowa Representative said the New York Times investigative report needs to be used to “turn the pressure up” and “create the momentum so Congress is compelled to act” like after the ACORN tapes were released.
King said, like with Pigford, Americans did not know what ACORN was until they saw James O’Keefe’s undercover tapes.
He said the public’s “revulsion” after watching those tapes forced Congress to act quickly to defund ACORN and the more “public understands what Pigford is, Congress will not have the will to fund it any longer.”
Photo: USDA
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.