Videos jeopardize ACORN’s funding

The liberal activist group ACORN rakes in millions of dollars in federal taxpayer dollars a year - at least $53 million since 1994 for its housing programs alone - but that largess is in jeopardy after a hidden-camera video showed one of its workers advising a supposed prostitute how to cheat on taxes and mortgage applications.

House Republicans on Tuesday introduced the Defund ACORN Act that would sever all ties between the government and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a day after the Senate voted overwhelmingly to prohibit funding the group in the 2010 housing appropriations bill.

House Republican leaders also sent a letter Tuesday to the Internal Revenue Service asking the agency to end its partnership with ACORN for providing free tax preparation services to low- and middle-income Americans.

“It is alarming to think that one the IRS’ largest and rapidly growing partners in a tax-preparation program allegedly employs individuals who encourage tax fraud,” said the letter signed by House Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio, Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia and Rep. David Camp of Michigan, ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee.

ACORN apparently is not compensated for its work with the IRS.

Despite most Senate Democrats turning on ACORN in the vote Monday, House Democratic leaders have remained mum about the troubles confronting their longtime ally and likely will resist bringing the Defund ACORN Act to the floor.

The vote would put many Democrats in a perilous position.

Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, New York Democrat, who is considered vulnerable in the 2010 elections, found that out when she voted against the bill Monday. The National Republican Senatorial Committee quickly criticized her for breaking with her fellow New Yorker, Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a member of the Democratic leadership team, who supported the measure.

It is difficult to determine exactly how much federal funding ACORN collects because the organization and its more than 300 affiliated groups, which often use the same accounting firm and the same address in New Orleans, can vie for myriad federal grants.

For instance, ACORN and its affiliates are eligible for millions of dollars in economic stimulus funds.

“It’s not very transparent. That’s the problem,” said Cleta Mitchell, national co-chairman of the Republican National Lawyers Association, which has called for a Justice Department investigation of ACORN and its funding.

The ACORN Housing Corp. last year took in about $27.8 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. That same year, ACORN Institute got more than $486,000 from the same agency, according to data compiled by Mr. Boehner’s office.

The data showed ACORN got more than $53.6 million from HUD since 1994. That does not include money from other agencies or money to affiliated groups, such as Citizen Services Inc., which beyond taxpayer money took in more than $800,000 performing get-out-the-vote work for President Obama’s 2008 campaign for the White House.

ACORN has long been a target for conservatives who say it skirts tax laws and commits other crimes while helping to elect Democratic candidates and promote liberal causes. Until now, those criticism failed to hobble ACORN with its close ties to Mr. Obama and decades of support from Democrats.

The videos that surfaced last week, however, proved a turning point.

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