Defund ACORN Now (September 2009) PDF Print

Knowing your interest in how taxpayer dollars are spent, I wanted to inform you of legislation I have recently cosponsored that would prevent the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) from receiving taxpayer funding. Recent reports and videos have shown ACORN employees offering advice on how to participate in tax evasion, prostitution, human trafficking, fraud and conspiracy. These are only the latest revelations in a pattern of wrongdoing, including significant charges of voter registration fraud over the course of the last election. In response, Republicans have issued a formal request for a Justice Department investigation into ACORN’s potential criminal activity.

I strongly support the calls for a Justice Department investigation into ACORN and the potentially criminal activities by some of its employees. Frankly, this step is long past due given the reports we’ve seen connecting ACORN. I am deeply concerned that an organization tied to these potentially criminal activities, and that has failed so significantly in meeting its mission of providing low-income housing to those truly in need, is receiving taxpayer dollars. By way of background, an analysis of federal data by the Office of the Republican Leader determined that ACORN has received more than $53 million in direct funding from federal taxpayer dollars since 1994, and has likely received substantially more indirectly through states and localities that receive federal block grants.

This week we have seen several positive steps in Congress to strip funding from ACORN, including a measure passed in the Senate that would block the organization from receiving federal grants. I have cosponsored legislation in the House that would stop ACORN from receiving federal tax dollars once and for all and signed a letter to the President urging him to issue a directive to all government agencies and departments to halt funding for ACORN immediately. It’s past time that the Majority stop protecting this potentially criminal enterprise. I will continue to work with my fellow House members to protect taxpayer dollars.