New charges have been filed against ACORN just as Rep. Barney Frank moved an amendment to the House floor that would make it easier for the liberal non-profit organization to receive federal funds, despite on-going vote fraud investigations.
Law enforcement officials in Pennsylvania have charged seven workers with either forging, illegally soliciting or illegally filling out voter registration cards in the midst of the 2008 elections. This comes just a few days after top state officials in Nevada filed a felony criminal complaint against the non-profit group formally known as the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now.
Frank’s amendment would fundamentally alter an anti-ACORN provision Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) had inserted in the proposed Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act and will likely be approved today in a mostly party-line vote.
Bachmann’s earlier amendment was unanimously approved by Frank’s committee in a voice vote last week. It would block organizations that have been indicted for voter registration or vote fraud from receiving housing counseling grants and legal assistance grants. Bachman’s prohibition would apply only to the proposed mortgage reform legislation, and would not change ACORN’s ability to receive funds under either the stimulus program or 2010 budget.
Frank, who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said his panel’s approval last week of Bachmann’s provision was a mistake.
“I did not read it carefully, and it was in the last minute that the amendment was accepted,” Frank said. “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.”
The Frank’s amendment would allow non-profits that have been indicted to still receive federal grant money under the pending mortgage bill so long as they have not been convicted.
ACORN is now under investigation for vote fraud in at least 12 different states.
Rep. Bachmann’s floor speech from today is below and is as follows:
“Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this amendment which strips down language in the bill designed to keep taxpayer dollars from falling into the hands of organizations indicted for voter fraud or related tax crimes.
“Last week, during the Financial Services Committee markup of the underlying bill, I offered a straightforward amendment to limit eligibility for the housing counseling grants and legal assistance grants authorized by the bill to exclude organizations indicted for voter fraud or that employ people indicted for such crimes.
“Plain and simple. And, it should sound familiar to us all.
“The exact same language was passed as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 to prohibit groups, such as ACORN, from obtaining taxpayer funded grants.
“272 members of this body, including the Gentleman from Massachusetts, voted for that legislation which became law last July.
“Naturally, I was pleased when the Gentleman from Massachusetts immediately expressed his support for my amendment and it was passed by a unanimous voice vote.
“Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, the Gentleman from Massachusetts announced that he had changed his mind. He flip-flopped and announced his intention to gut my amendment during floor consideration.
“The exact way in which he would gut the amendment; the exact problems he had with the approved language has changed several times over the past week. But, one thing has remained constant: The Chairman wants to lower the bar so that organizations can continue to access taxpayer funds even after they have been involved with defrauding the American people and violating the American trust repeatedly.
“Make no mistake about it: He will talk today about the bedrock legal principle of innocence until proof of guilt; but that is not what this is about. The language in the bill today does not jeopardize that principle at all. Decisions on criminal guilt will remain in the capable hands of a jury of peers.
“But, 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. Today, each and every one of us can go on record as saying that we will no longer set the bar so low; that we will require organizations that want to use taxpayer funds to prove that they are worthy of the taxpayer’s trust.
“There’s a saying: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. ACORN and organizations like it have fooled us not once, not twice, but over and over again. The stories of their indictments for voter fraud for violating their tax status, for voter registration improprieties abound. Grand juries across the nation have found them and their employees lacking. Yet, we continue to funnel millions of dollars into their coffers.
“Just this week, in fact, the headlines out of Nevada were 39 counts of voter registration fraud against ACORN and two of its former employees.
“AND JUST HOURS AGO, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported breaking news that an Allegheny County District Attorney charged 7 employees of ACORN “with forgery and election law violations, saying they filed hundreds of fraudulent voter registrations during last year’s general election.”
“How many felony charges does it take to see that this organization has violated the public trust? Congress is not the arbiter of guilt or innocence; but Congress does decide how to spend the people’s money. At what point do we say that this organization is not worthy of the hard-earned bucks of the American taxpayer?
According to recent testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, ACORN has been under investigation in some states for, among other things:
· Violations of the Tax Code as a 501(c)(3) charitable and educational organization for intervening in partisan campaign activities.
· Violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971.
· Fraudulent voter registration activities.
· And failure to comply with state law in voter registration drives.
“And, here are just a few more headlines of late:
· In January of 2009, a voter registration worker for ACORN in East St. Louis was indicted on two counts of voter fraud for submitting forged cards for residents at nursing homes without their knowledge.
· According to the AP in October 2008, “a suburban Philadelphia man was charged with forgery, allegedly altering 18 voter-registration applications during his employment with an organization [ACORN] whose voter-outreach efforts have become a flashpoint in the presidential campaign.”
· And, CNN reported in October 2008 about an ACORN worker who “helped register nearly 2,000 voters for the community group ACORN. But not one of them actually existed… he was convicted last year and spent nearly three months in prison.”
“The Gentleman from Massachusetts says that his amendment is about due process. I’m sorry, Mr. Speaker, but the American people are smarter than that and they deserve better than such oratory sleight of hand. His amendment is about our duty as stewards of the taxpayer’s dollar.
“Others will say that this is about the importance of the underlying grants programs. But, there are plenty of legitimate, law-abiding non-profit groups who have never seen an indictment that could still apply for the grants authorized by the bill.
“The bottom line is: either you’re against allowing organizations that engage in or employ individuals under investigation for voter fraud to receive taxpayer dollars, or you aren’t.
“Mr. Speaker, our votes on this amendment will make our positions crystal clear to our constituents.
“Are you on their side? Or are you on ACORN’s?
“We owe it to our constituents who are already weary and frustrated and outraged by the cycle of spending and bailout and taxing and borrowing to at least show them that we won’t pick their pockets to fund groups that abuse their trust over and over and over again.
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I urge my colleagues to vote no on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.”
