USDA announced a loan-forgiveness initiative for socially disadvantaged farmers in May 2021, but court challenges halted it after four producers received payments. Congress repealed the program in 2022, so Section 1005 is not an open or current source of loan relief. A separate USDA debt-assistance program later targeted distressed borrowers under different rules.
What Section 1005 would have provided
Section 1005 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 authorized payments of up to 120% of qualifying loan balances outstanding on January 1, 2021. The provision covered specified Farm Service Agency (FSA) direct and guaranteed farm loans, as well as Commodity Credit Corporation Farm Storage Facility Loans. The statutory text allowed payment directly toward loan payoff, to the borrower, or through a combination of the two. (American Rescue Plan Act, Section 1005)
The additional amount above the balance was intended to help cover taxes and fees associated with debt forgiveness. The Congressional Research Service described the provision’s socially disadvantaged farmer definition as including racial and ethnic minorities; it differed from broader uses of the term in some farm-credit programs, which also included gender. (Congressional Research Service)
USDA announced a launch, but the rollout was interrupted
On May 21, 2021, FSA announced its first notice of funding availability and said it expected payments to begin in early June and continue on a rolling basis. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said at the time that the American Rescue Plan made it possible for USDA to deliver debt relief “beginning in June.” That statement described the agency’s planned launch; it did not mean that payments continued as planned. (USDA FSA, May 21, 2021)
Legal challenges stopped further payments. GAO reported that FSA had issued payments to only four agricultural producers before the halt. By September 2021, FSA had identified 21,564 producers with eligible or potentially eligible direct or guaranteed loan accounts. Their unpaid balance totaled about $4.6 billion, and USDA estimated potential payments, including taxes and fees, at about $5.6 billion. Those were contemporaneous agency estimates, not final counts of participants or amounts paid. (GAO-22-105051)
Congress repealed the program in 2022
Section 22008 of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 repealed Section 1005. The minority-focused initiative is therefore not accepting applications or paying claims under that authority. (Inflation Reduction Act, Section 22008)
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Later USDA debt assistance was a separate program
The Inflation Reduction Act also created a distinct assistance effort under Section 22006, appropriating $3.1 billion for distressed borrowers with qualifying FSA-administered farm loans. It was not a restart of Section 1005 and did not use the same minority-based eligibility design. GAO reported that USDA had distributed approximately $2.3 billion to delinquent borrowers as of April 2024; that dated figure is not a statement of current 2026 availability. (GAO-25-107008, published December 3, 2024)
For current eligibility or applications under any separate USDA program, consult USDA’s current materials; the figures above describe Section 1005’s interrupted rollout and a separate program’s distribution snapshot.
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