Biden Administration Releases Executive Agency Equity Action Plans + New CFPB Report

Thanks to the National Family Farm Coalition for passing along these federal updates!

At the end of last week the Biden-Harris administration released a list of resources highlighting plans by executive agencies to advance equity and racial justice across the federal government. The action plan for USDA can be found here, and names a number of areas related to NFFC's current policy work, including:

• Improving equitable access to fair credit for family-scale producers, and farmers of color in particular.

• Strengthening the land tenure rights of heirs property owners through the FSA Heirs’ Property Relending Program.

• Expanding access to USDA's contracting and procurement programs to underserved communities.

• Improving equitable access to USDA technical assistance programs for underserved communities.

• Establishing and implementing USDA's Equity Commission.

You can find the full list of agency action plans here, and a fact sheet on the initiative here.

In other related news, today the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau released a new report (here) on the rural banking challenges faced by rural communities and farmers, which touches on a number of credit issues NFFC has highlighted in recent comments to the administration.