Black farmers say Inflation Reduction Act reneges on promises for debt relief

Lester Bonner, a tobacco farmer in Virginia, opened his mailbox one morning last June to find a letter from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The five-page missive said the remaining balance on a $50,000 federal loan he'd received to help him buy his farm would soon be wiped clean. 

"It was going to release the greatest burden of my life," Bonner, 75, told CBS MoneyWatch. "That's what's been setting me back this whole time."

It's been more than a year since Bonner, who is Black, got that letter from the USDA, but his loan still hasn't been forgiven. Now he believes it will never be erased.