brianna keilar, cnn, capitol hill. >>> john boyd founder of the national black farmers association joinfrom washington. an incredible fight for the settlement. it's carried on for a long time as we saw in brianna's piece. >> yes. >> how and when might this, what, $50,000 go to each of the 80,000 black farmers who were part of this suit? when would that be delivered and how? >> well, the vote that took place was a very, very historic vote. fredricka, as you know, that was the tenth time we tried to get that bill done and i'm so happy that we were 'to get done with the leadership of harry reid and the senators to work together to see that this bill happened for tens of thousands of black farmers. we have one more hurd toll work with after the thanksgiving recess in congress. so i'm looking forward to working with leaders there, and then it should take maybe about, up to six months to a year to go through the process, nearly 80,000 black farmers will have to go through the process. it's not a blanket settlement the way people portrayed it. each farm worry have to have a case heard by an in

john boyd was a rollethe next deficit goer to the house after the thanksgiving break.i said before the funding has already passed the house and should not expect to run into any problems there. cnn capitol hill. >> good news for sushi lovers say doctors are saying that eating raw fish could benefit your help. >> future cast is showing more rain on the way tonight. i will have mark future cast coming up for sunday. [ mom ] my son only wanted one toy this year. i want a robosan 4000. [ mom ] the one no one could get. toy stores are reporting long lines and empty shelves. a robosan 4000. [ mom ] and i mean no one. so i did most of my holiday shopping on citi specials. with the money i saved, i bid online -and got exactly what he wanted. -a robosan 4000! [ television ] introducing the new robosan 5000. [ mom ] at least for now. [ male announcer ] make your happy holiday stories come true with citi specials. what's your story? citi can help you write it. ♪ [ male announcer ] open up a cadillac during our season's best sales event and receive the gift of asphalt. experience

john boyd, the head of them, who has driven a tractor around washington, d.c. and filed his claims and made this a high priority public issue testified there were 18,000 black farmers. so how is it, even if one would concede the point and i do not, if one would concede the point that every black farmer was discriminated against, that would be 18,000 claims, not 94,000 claims. one could go back through the records and try to find the time we had the highest population of black farmers in modern record history and we were able to go back into the 1970's and through rationale put together some numbers that might justify twice that many, as high as 36,000. but his testimony was 18,000 black farmers, 94,000 claims. how does that work and when i asked him that question, he said we have brothers, we have families. maybe they never saw the farm, maybe they moved off to the city. they have a share. they have been discriminated against, too. well, seems to me to be a great big stretch, madam speaker, 18,000 black farmers and 94,000 claims and nobody is advocating for the

for years now, john boyd has divided his time between growing soybeans and pressuring congress, fightingor tens of thousands of black farmers like himself, discriminated against by the department of agriculture in the 1980s and '90s. >> it takes almost 380-some odd days to process a black loan application. it takes less than 30 days to process a white loan application. they went through hell. they went through living hell. we lost land, we lost our livelihoods, our way of life. >> reporter: more than a decade ago, a federal judge ordered the government to compensate farmers for discrimination, and thousands were, but it wasn't until february that the obama administration announced a settlement with 70,000 more farmers. it was up to congress to dole out more than $1 billion in damages. after missing multiple deadlines, the senate finally agreed friday to pay up. >> the bill is passed? >> the bill is passed. >> i appreciate everyone's cooperation. this has been a long, hard slog to get to where we are. >> reporter: the breakthrough follows a partisan logjam. in july, the house approved a b

now, chairman bobby scott mentioned john boyd of the national black farmers association. he's sitting up in the gallery right now and i want you to know that he came to me in the spring of 1983, that was 27 years ago, and we had been working on this matter ever since. all across the south we even had problems we found out that were in the north. it wasn't just the south. but the south was obviously the most pervasive. and so we are talking about something that was written up by -- a number of years ago in the "washington post" october 3, 2004, ask unanimous consent to insert into the record the article entitled "the promise land, bigotry and bankruptcy haven't driven ricky haney from the fields that his ancestors worked as slaves." i ask unanimous consent -- the speaker pro tempore: so ordered. mr. conyers: thank you, mr. speaker. as much as i appreciate the secretaryf agriculture for his work in this, and as much as i appreciate those that are going to support this measure i am sorry to say that this matter of fairness to farmers of color, hispanics, and women are not ye

and there the president of the black farmers organization, john boyd, testified under oath there are 18,000 black farmers. i went back through the usda records i could find a peek of perhaps as many as 36,000. his number of 18 sticks in my mind. we are up to 94,000 claims, madam speaker. and 18,000 black farmers. if you presumed that everyone was discriminated against, which i reject on its face, we are looking at something here that is a multiplier beyond this congress ever intentioned. as the gentlelady from north carolina said, anticipate a couple thousand applicants turns into now 90-plus thousand am canths, of which perhaps 2/3 may be successful in their $50,000 siphon. there was a statute of limitations. a consent decree was closed april 14, 1999. since that time it's been opened up a second time. the ag committee is the other component of this. myself and congressman goodlatte of virginia is the only two that served on judiciary and ag. there in the 2008 farm bill the chairman of the ag committee, mr. peterson, put in $100 million to be the end, the settlement of pickford. tha

. >> if it's not her fault going back, john avlon, to congressman boyd's point, you studied middle america as well as anybody. maybe she didn't cause 9.6% unemployment. but she became the face. there was a new study out today, you know, upping the 75 million now, dollars, in ads spent against pelosi, $115 million against obama. did they need a new face? >> they do. this is going to be a damaging decision for democrats because it locks obama into going into the 2012 election with the sample lossy/reed/obama names that they used effectively to pull people away from democrats. she may be judged that way by history. after gingrich lost more seats than expected, in '98, he resigned. this is someone who has a 21% approval rating among independent voters, pelosi. 52% of all americans have a very unfavorable opinion of her. those are numbers that are a huge drag on a democratic ticket. and that's just the reality. and to not deal with that is a major problem for the democratic party going forward. >> erick erickson, you're the happy guy in the conversation at the moment then? >> who knows, the rep

john carney was the lieutenant governor. in florida, steve settle in -- steve sutherland defeated alan boyd. he is one of the 84 new republicans in the house. democrats have nine new members. >> see what people are watching at the c-span video library. it is right on our homepage. you can click our special election analysis tab. watch what you want, when you want. >> the u.s. house meets today for general speeches at 12:30. members will return at 2:00 p.m. eastern. the senate is not in session today because the party meetings throughout the day. senators are meeting this morning to elect leadership for the next two years. members are expected to speak with reporters after those elections. the house will hold a leadership elections tomorrow. democrats maintained control of the senate. the new speaker will be if republican. "washington journal" this morning looked into the changeover. " continues. host: representative chaka fattah is joining us to talk about whais next for congressional democrats. i want to begin with the leadership vote that will be happening on wednesday for house democrats.