While it was nice the Senate voted to stop ACORN from receiving funds from the transportation bill (with John McCain and Lindsay Grahm abstaining), it would be better to stop all federal funding of ACORN. Today, House Minority Leader John Boehner moved to do just that.
Washington, Sep 15 - House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today is introducing legislation – the Defund ACORN Act – to sever all ties between the federal government and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). At the same time, House Republicans are also sending a letter to President Obama asking him to take action to end taxpayer funding of ACORN. Boehner issued the following statement:
“It is evident that ACORN is incapable of using federal funds in a manner that is consistent with the law. Immediate action is necessary to ensure that no additional tax dollars are directed to ACORN. Simply put, ACORN should not receive another penny of American taxpayers’ money.
“It is outrageous that ACORN continues to receive taxpayer dollars after repeated revelations of corruption and potentially criminal activity. House Republicans are responding and taking action to terminate all federal funding to ACORN and its affiliates. We’ve asked the President to end all federal funding of ACORN – and if the administration does not act, we have a bill to stop federal funding of ACORN once and for all.
“I support the Census Bureau’s decision to end its relationship with ACORN, and believe it is vital that all other federal agencies follow its example. All ties between the federal government and ACORN and its affiliates must be cut, whether those ties consist of partnerships or the awarding of federal funds, including federal funds distributed through state and local governments from federal block grants.
“This is a matter of common sense and respect for taxpayer dollars.”
NOTE: An analysis of federal data by the Office of the Republican Leader staff determined that ACORN has received more than $53 million in direct funding from the federal government since 1994, and has likely received substantially more indirectly through states and localities that receive federal block grants. Today House Republicans, led by led Boehner, are sending a letter to President Obama asking him to use his authority to end all funding to and break all government ties with ACORN. Boehner also sent a letter to President Bush, and a letter to then-Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Steven Preston, last year requesting that they block funding to ACORN.
Good for House Republicans. It’s about time someone put an end to taxpayers funding this crooked organization. I have yet to hear any word from Dear Leader on the subject.
Update: The Wall Street Journal has an op-ed by John Fund that’s worth a read. Not only is ACORN one of the most corrupt (if not the most) organizations in the US, the democrats routinely blocked attempts to rein them in. Here’s an excerpt.
In 1995, Acorn unsuccessfully sued California to be exempt from the minimum wage, claiming that “the more that Acorn must pay each individual outreach worker . . . the fewer outreach workers it will be able to hire.” The decision to file that lawsuit was made by Wade Rathke, who founded Acorn in 1970 and was its long-time leader. He was forced by the group’s board to resign last year after it found that he’d engaged in a cover-up of a nearly $1 million embezzlement of Acorn funds by his brother Dale, then the group’s chief financial officer.
Mr. Rathke—now the chief organizer of a New Orleans-based local of the SEIU, a key Acorn ally—is out with a new book, “Citizen Wealth,” in which he touts a vision of “maximum eligible participation” by Americans in welfare programs as a way to force radical social change.
Sound familiar?
