USDA Denies Claims Made by Virginia Tobacco Growers

Source from:  By the Associated Press December 9, 2005 ABINGDON, Va. 12/12/2005

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has denied claims made by two Virginia farmers in a lawsuit that accused the agency of slashing the growers' tobacco-buyout payments. William J. Neese and Daniel M. Johnson, who farm burley tobacco in southwest Virginia, filed the lawsuit in September. They claim Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns overstepped his authority by deviating from a formula set by Congress that allocates payments under the $10 billion buyout of tobacco quotas. In a recent filing in U.S. District Court in Abingdon, the department denies that Johanns was outside his authority. The agency also denies other claims, including the farmers' calculations of money owed to them. A lawyer and a spokesman for the Department of Justice, which is defending the USDA, declined to comment. The lawsuit stems from the end of the federal government's Depression-era supply- and price-control program for tobacco. The lawsuit contends that Johanns applied a "convoluted formula" that reduced the money the two farmers will receive. The farmers' attorneys say the tobacco companies financing the buyout will save money under the changes. Enditem