President Obama has said that both parties must take on their “sacred cows” in order to reach a debt-ceiling compromise. He could start by taking on ACORN, a cow so sacred to the Democratic Party that it is still receiving federal funding despite a 2009 vote by Congress to stop giving the controversial group any more tax dollars.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded two separate grants of $79,819 and $461,086 to ACORN this year, according to USAspending.gov.
But you might not know that unless you know the organization receiving the money - the Affordable Housing Centers of America – is the same group that was formerly ACORN Housing.
Although the group changed its name, it still uses the same tax identification number and still appears on the government website as ACORN Housing Corporation, Inc.
This funding has been provided despite the “Defund ACORN Act,” which Obama signed in 2009.
The $79,819 grant was part of a program to “educate the public and housing providers about their rights and obligations under federal, state, and local fair housing laws.“
So not only is the federal government still funding ACORN, but it is employing its operatives to educate landlords and building owners about their “obligations.”
The second, larger grant was part of the HUD Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program, which supports projects that require eventual homeowners to participate in the construction of their homes.
Why does the federal government need to fund such projects through ACORN in what seems like a clear violation of the law? Well, as then-Sen. Barack Obama said, “Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work."
Today, even though giving federal funding to ACORN has been banned, ACORN is smack dab in the middle of HUD projects. Taxpayers deserve to know why.
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