On July 7, 2023, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the USDA Discrimination Financial Assistance Program (DFAP). The Program, which was created by Section 22007 of the Inflation Reduction Act, makes $2.2 billion available for “discrimination financial assistance” to farmers who can show that they experienced discrimination in USDA Farm Loan Programs. FLAG released a Brief Guide to DFAP on that same date.
Today we are releasing the Third Edition of the Farmers’ Guide to USDA Discrimination Financial Assistance Program. The first edition was published on August 27, 2023. The Second Edition was published on September 8, 2023. This Third Edition replaces the earlier Editions on our website.
One reason for a Third Edition is that on September 22, 2023, USDA announced that it was changing two important deadlines. First, USDA extended the Program Application deadline from October 31, 2023, to January 13, 2024. Second, USDA extended the deadline for farmers to ask for documents that USDA might have about the farmer from September 29, 2023, to November 3, 2023. This Third Edition of the Guide is updated to include those deadline changes.
This Edition of the Guide also includes a discussion of how the application process works and how decisions on Applications are made.
