WASHINGTON, D.C. (NAFB) – House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Scott calls lawsuits against aid for minority farmers “shameful.”

Congress provided the Department of Agriculture funds to provide debt relief to Black, American Indian, Hispanic, Asian American or Pacific Islander farmers. However, several farmers, including Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, are suing USDA over the aid program included in the American Rescue Plan relief package.

Scott says, “This shameful lawsuit is racial discrimination at its worst against our nation’s Black farmers and socially disadvantaged farmers.”

His comments were directed at a lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. A federal judge this month ordered USDA to temporarily stop the program, and USDA says it will forcefully defend the debt relief program.

The Department of Justice argues the farmers behind the Wisconsin lawsuit “have failed to show irreparable harm and the government is well within its constitutional rights to provide the debt relief,” according to Politico.