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| ACORN Dispersing Resources to SEIU, Other Progressive Groups |
| 2009-12-03 |
| ACORN, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, is in the process of changing its name and has already transferred many of its resources to several other left-wing advocacy and political groups, according to a report released Tuesday by Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. While the Justice Department has said that federal housing funds should continue to flow to ACORN, several congressmen, in a joint hearing of the House Oversight Committee and the Judiciary Committee, said they want a special prosecutor to investigate the group's use of taxpayer dollars. Several weeks back, Congress included in the Continuing Appropriations Resolution for 2010 a provision that bars federal funds to ACORN and its “affiliates, subsidiaries or allied organizations.” President Obama signed the resolution. But the Justice Department’s opinion issued last week cleared the way for funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to continue going to the organization, a group that many House Republicans have called a “criminal enterprise.” Former ACORN employee-turned-whistleblower Anita Moncrief told the House panel of eight Republicans and no Democrats that the organization continually got federal block grants but did not use the grants for helping the poor as promised. Rather, ACORN “used the money to fund the political machine,” Moncrief said. “ACORN makes money off the poor...Poverty is big business for ACORN”... The House Oversight report claimed otherwise, saying, “ACORN’s own training manual reflects a business model in which money is taken from poor people and then funneled into partisan political efforts.” “ACORN is currently in the process of changing its name and has already transferred resources to several chapters of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and possibly Data and Field Services, the Working Families Party, Change to Win and the Council for Unity,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee. The federal government has awarded at least $53 million to ACORN and its affiliates since 1994, according to an analysis by the House Republican staff.. The Justice Department is not doing a nationwide investigation as it should, said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. He also thinks the close ties between ACORN and President Obama, going back to Obama’s days as a community organizer in Chicago, create a conflict... “The president’s ties to ACORN taint any conclusion that the Justice Department may reach with regard to whether or not to investigate and prosecute ACORN employees,” Smith said. “That’s why I request that the attorney general appoint a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation into ACORN.” |
| Posted by:tipper |