Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Akin (R-MO), along with many other Republicans was prevented from offering an amendment to H.R. 2847, the Fiscal Year 2010 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Act.

Although appropriation bills are typically debated under an open rule, which allows members to offer and debate amendments, the majority prevented the offering and debating of many Republican amendments by rule.

"I am extremely disappointed that the Democrat majority did not want nor allow open debate on amendments submitted for consideration," said Akin. "It is the Constitutional responsibility for Congress to determine how much and for what the American taxpayer will be on the hook for."

"To not allow transparency and debate does a grave disservice to the process, and in essence curtails meaningful representation for the taxpayer," said Akin.

Congressman Akin’s amendment sought to guarantee that, "none of the funds provided in this Act may be used by the Bureau of the Census to provide any grant to or contract with any organization that has been indicted, or employ or contract with any individual who has been indicted, for a violation under Federal law relating to an election for Federal office. In February, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) signed on as a national partner with the U.S. Census Bureau to assist with the recruitment of the 1.4 million temporary workers needed to go door-to-door to count every person in the United States -- currently believed to be more than 306 million people. ACORN workers and supervisors have recently faced charges of fraudulent voter registration in Pennsylvania and Nevada. ACORN also came under fire in 2007 when Washington State filed felony charges against several paid ACORN employees and supervisors for more than 1700 fraudulent voter registrations.