Only four Democrats voted against an amendment last week that would that allow organizations with a criminal history to receive taxpayer funding. They are: Rep. Bobby Bright (D-Ala.) Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-Ariz.), Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho).
The amendment passed by a margin of 245-176 in an otherwise party line vote just as new criminal charges were filed against the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) in Nevada and Pennsylvania. The group is now under investigation for voter fraud in at least 14 different states.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) submitted an amendment in April to the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act that would prevent organizations like ACORN that have been indicted for voter fraud from being eligible for the housing counseling grants and legal assistance grants. The House Finance Committee unanimously passed her amendment on a voice vote.
But Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the committee chairman, reversed his position just a few hours later and offered a competing amendment that would lower the bar for organizations like ACORN.
“I made a mistake yesterday in not objecting to the Bachmann amendment,” he said. “I did not read it carefully, and it was in the last minute that the amendment was accepted. It is a deeply flawed amendment and I am opposed to it. Banning people from possible participation in government programs based on an indictment is a violation of the basic principles of due process, and I intend to offer a corrected amendment when the bill comes to the floor of the House next week.”
This “corrected” amendment states that organizations can still receive funding so long as they have not been convicted. Unfortunately, this essentially “eviscerates” the meaning of the original amendment and sets the bar too low for groups like ACORN, Bachmann has argued.
“While I realize that we are all innocent until proven guilty, ACORN has established a pattern of voter registration violations that seems to pop up election after election and in state after state. The courts are the appropriate place to try guilt and innocence,” she wrote in a blog post. Congress has a fiduciary obligation to spend tax dollars wisely.”
The 2010 federal budget contains an additional $5.5 billion that can find its way into ACORN’s coffers as The Examiner has previously reported. Now that 245 members of Congress are on record supporting taxpayer funding for organizations with a criminal history it would seem that ACORN remains well positioned, despite new allegations.
“I am disappointed that Congress decided to side with ACORN today over the taxpayers. It is not only legitimate for Congress to decide the threshold for accessing taxpayer funds; it is incumbent upon us to do so. And, for far too long, Congress has cavalierly distributed taxpayer money,” said Bachmann. This is a shameful abdication of our fiduciary duties.”
