September 15th, 2009, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today condemned seven Senators for voting to continue funding ACORN with federal housing grants, terming them the “Sordid Seven” and promising to hold them accountable.
Yesterday, the Senate voted 83-7 to prohibit ACORN from receiving housing grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Voting no were Senators Roland Burris (D-IL), Robert Casey (D-PA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Bernard Sanders (I-VT), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).
“The ACORN Housing Corporation has long been pushing the very loose-lending policies that helped destroy the housing industry. And now it has been exposed for working with prostitutes, as well. Yet, these seven Senators have knowingly voted to keep sending taxpayer money to a highly corrupt organization of pushers and pimps,” said Wilson.
“The constituents of these seven unconscionable Senators need to know that despite ACORN’s clear track record of bad lending practices, the ‘Sordid Seven’ have chosen to look the other way,” Wilson added.
Wilson cited ACORN Housing Corporation’s troubled history in giving out cheap mortgages as playing a key role in weakening credit standards. “ACORN repeatedly gave out 100-percent financed loans, accepted undocumented income, and even gave out loans with no use of credit scores,” Wilson explained.
“The fact is, the Senate did not go far enough,” Wilson added, saying, “ACORN should be immediately defunded of all its federal moneys, no if’s, and’s, or but’s.” Wilson called on members of Congress to support a House Republican proposal to end all federal funding to ACORN reported this morning in the Washington Examiner.
ACORN is currently eligible for over $500 million of an “affordable housing fund” created under the $300 billion Foreclosure Prevention Act passed this past summer. According to the Consumer Rights League, ACORN receives some 40 percent of its funding from taxpayers annually. This fiscal year it has received $1.6 million received thus far for housing services.
ACORN was also made eligible for more than $3 billion under the $787 billion “stimulus” spending bill, and $5.5 billion from the 2010 budget. Since 1994, ACORN has received at least $53 million from American taxpayers, according to the Washington Examiner.
Yesterday’s vote in the Senate followed the highly publicized disclosure of undercover videos revealing operations offering assistance to underaged prostitutes exclusively reported by Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government news portal. On the videos, ACORN workers were shown giving advice on how to evade taxes, set up a brothel, and even use minors as prostitutes.
The revelations have already led to the U.S. Census revoking its partnership agreement with ACORN in the official 2010 Census count, as ALG News previously reported.
In addition to its problems with housing funds and offering assistance to prostitutes, ACORN is under investigation for voter registration fraud in several swing states, including Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Missouri, and has a long history of such fraud in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington, Michigan, Wisconsin, and New Mexico. Americans for Limited government last year released a comprehensive executive summary of its activities.
“These seven Senators, who I’m now calling the ‘Sordid Seven,’ ought to be held to account, and Americans for Limited Government promises to remind their constituents often of their acting as bagmen for ACORN,” Wilson concluded.
Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.
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