Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the USDA sent $2.2 billion to 43,000 individuals who faced discrimination in receiving service from the agencies’ farm programs before January 2021. The money was distributed to individuals in all 50 states, including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa.

The money comes from the Discrimination Financial Assistance Program established by the Inflation Reduction Act. Two independent panels reviewed the 58,000 applications for eligibility.

The 23,000 recipients who have or had a farming or ranching operation are receiving between $10,000 and $500,000 of assistance, with an average of nearly $82,000. Over 20,000 individuals who planned to have a farming or ranching operation but could not do so because they could not secure a USDA loan received between $3,500 and $6,000.

The discrimination resulted in denial of credit due to race, sex or gender identification, late servicing of loans and higher interest rates than for other borrowers.

Read more about the USDA discrimination payments here.