ACORN Funding. Senator Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) offered an amendment to the fiscal 2010 Transportation-HUD appropriations bill (H.R. 3288) stating: “None of the funds made available under this Act may be directly or indirectly distributed to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).” According to a September 15 AP story, Johanns “said that ACORN has received $53 million in taxpayer funds since 1994 and that the group was eligible for a wider set of funding in the pending legislation, which funds housing and transportation programs.” ACORN has come under intense scrutiny since the release of videos on September 9 by two conservatives, who posed as a prostitute and her pimp, in which ACORN employees in Baltimore gave advice on buying a home with illicit funds and how to account on tax forms for the woman’s income. Over the next few days, the pair released several other videos depicting similar situations in ACORN offices around the nation.
The Senate passed the ACORN Funding Ban amendment to H.R. 3288 on September 14, 2009 by a vote of 83-7 (Roll Call 275). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because federal government funding of community organizations is not authorized by the Constitution.
