Here, America. Here are your elected Republican House of Representatives at work. This week, Republicans have scheduled two, count’em, two votes to… defund ACORN.
Sidenote: ACORN no longer exists, but the pointless act of defunding this non-existent organization that once helped to register poorer Americans to vote, plays good in the Republican public. Afterall, election season is almost here again, and the “defunding ACORN” act is a good way to get the Fox News educated Republican to the polls.
House Republicans are scheduled to vote on two separate budget bills this week, each of which would reject funding for the poverty activism group ACORN, despite the fact that ACORN disbanded three years ago.
ACORN, also known as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, came under heavy fire in the fall of 2009 after conservative videographer James O’Keefe released a set of selectively edited videos that appeared to show its employees offering advice on tax avoidance related to prostitution and child smuggling. Independent investigations by the California attorney general, the Massachusetts attorney general and the Brooklyn, N.Y., district attorney would later clear ACORN of criminal wrongdoing, and an investigation by the Government Accountability Office would clear ACORN of charges that it mishandled federal funds.
But in the fall of 2009, Congress banned federal funding for ACORN using broad language that applied to “any organization” that had been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws or campaign finance laws or with filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency. The funding ban also extended to any employees, contractors or others affiliated with any group so charged.
Struggling with the bad publicity and loss of federal funds, ACORN dissolved in early 2010. Just to be sure, however, Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) included this language in a government funding bill introduced on May 28 of this year: “None of the funds made available in this Act may be distributed to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) or its subsidiaries or successors.”
One reply on “Republicans At Work: Two Votes To Defund ACORN Scheduled This Week”
You have to wonder how Congress works. They scheduled 2 votes this month to defund an organization that they defunded almost 4 years ago, an organization that closed its doors in 2010. What ever happen to voting for the best and brightest?