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2 Va. tobacco growers sued, claiming offers shortchanged them
Jump to full article: Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch, 2005-12-08
Author: JOHN REID BLACKWELL TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Intro: The U.S. Department of Agriculture is denying the allegations of two Virginia farmers who sued the agency over the disbursement of money from a $10 billion buyout of the federal tobacco-quota system.
The farmers of burley tobacco in Southwest Virginia filed the lawsuit in September, claiming that U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns overstepped his authority by deviating from a formula set by Congress to determine payments to farmers.
In a response filed in U.S. District Court in Abingdon, the department denies that Johanns overstepped his authority. The agency also denies other claims in the lawsuit, including estimates of the amount of money the farmers believe they were supposed to receive.
A lawyer and a spokesman for the Department of Justice, which is defending the USDA, declined to comment yesterday.
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