Thread: Obama gives grant to Acorn

AmSpecBlog
Obama Gives New Grant to ACORN; Did He Violate Federal Law?
By Matthew Vadum on 6.30.11 @ 1:34PM

Why is President Obama apparently defying federal law by funding ACORN?

Judicial Watch discovered that the Obama administration is flouting the will of Congress by giving federal taxpayer money to ACORN.

Obama's Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) gave a $79,819 grant to the largest branch of the ACORN tree, ACORN Housing Corp. (AHC). AHC filed papers last year legally changing its name to Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA). It's the same old organization with a brand new ACORN-free name.

Worse yet, the grant funds a political agitation and indoctrination program. Here's HUD's euphemistic description of the program:

Education and Outreach Initiative grants (EOI) - HUD awarded $6.8 million to organizations that educate the public and housing providers about their rights and obligations under federal, state, and local fair housing laws. Groups will also conduct fair lending workshops, community meetings, and individual counseling activities focused on homeowners at risk for discrimination.

According to HUD, the grant money came out of fiscal 2010 appropriations.

That's a big problem.

As I reported previously, in 2009 Congress passed four separate appropriations bills that contained language blocking federal funds from flowing to ACORN during federal fiscal year 2010, which ran from Oct. 1, 2009 through Sept. 30, 2010. All four of the laws prevent ACORN and its affiliated groups from receiving federal taxpayer dollars.

The funding prohibition in Public Law 111-117 (PDF) applies specifically to HUD. It spells out in pretty clear terms that ACORN shouldn't be getting any government funding. Let's see just how clearly it spells it out:

Division A - Section 418. None of the funds made available under this Act or any prior Act may be provided to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, or allied organizations. [p. 80 of PDF]

Division B - Section 534. None of the funds made available under this Act may be distributed to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) or its subsidiaries. [p. 125 of PDF]

Division E - Section 511. None of the funds made available in this division or any other division in this Act may be distributed to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) or its subsidiaries. [p. 279 of PDF]

Yet despite the ban, President Obama, who worked for ACORN as an employee and as the group's lawyer, found it in his heart to hand over $79,819 of your money to his thug friends at ACORN.

As I warn in my new book, Subversion Inc.: How Obama's ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers, ACORN is still with us, doing its best to destroy American capitalism and democracy.

The group is gearing up right now to make sure President Obama gets reelected in 2012. Its state chapters have adopted assumed names and remain active. Project Vote, ACORN's vote manufacturing factory, continues to operate unmolested in ACORN's Washington, D.C. office.

You've been warned.

http://spectator.org/blog/2011/06/30/ob ... -to-acorn#

Originally Posted by grandmasmad

AmSpecBlog
Obama Gives New Grant to ACORN; Did He Violate Federal Law?
By Matthew Vadum on 6.30.11 @ 1:34PM

Why is President Obama apparently defying federal law by funding ACORN?

Judicial Watch discovered that the Obama administration is flouting the will of Congress by giving federal taxpayer money to ACORN.

Obama's Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) gave a $79,819 grant to the largest branch of the ACORN tree, ACORN Housing Corp. (AHC). AHC filed papers last year legally changing its name to Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA). It's the same old organization with a brand new ACORN-free name.

Worse yet, the grant funds a political agitation and indoctrination program. Here's HUD's euphemistic description of the program:

Education and Outreach Initiative grants (EOI) - HUD awarded $6.8 million to organizations that educate the public and housing providers about their rights and obligations under federal, state, and local fair housing laws. Groups will also conduct fair lending workshops, community meetings, and individual counseling activities focused on homeowners at risk for discrimination.

According to HUD, the grant money came out of fiscal 2010 appropriations.

That's a big problem.

As I reported previously, in 2009 Congress passed four separate appropriations bills that contained language blocking federal funds from flowing to ACORN during federal fiscal year 2010, which ran from Oct. 1, 2009 through Sept. 30, 2010. All four of the laws prevent ACORN and its affiliated groups from receiving federal taxpayer dollars.

The funding prohibition in Public Law 111-117 (PDF) applies specifically to HUD. It spells out in pretty clear terms that ACORN shouldn't be getting any government funding. Let's see just how clearly it spells it out:

Division A - Section 418. None of the funds made available under this Act or any prior Act may be provided to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, or allied organizations. [p. 80 of PDF]

Division B - Section 534. None of the funds made available under this Act may be distributed to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) or its subsidiaries. [p. 125 of PDF]

Division E - Section 511. None of the funds made available in this division or any other division in this Act may be distributed to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) or its subsidiaries. [p. 279 of PDF]

Yet despite the ban, President Obama, who worked for ACORN as an employee and as the group's lawyer, found it in his heart to hand over $79,819 of your money to his thug friends at ACORN.

As I warn in my new book, Subversion Inc.: How Obama's ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers, ACORN is still with us, doing its best to destroy American capitalism and democracy.

The group is gearing up right now to make sure President Obama gets reelected in 2012. Its state chapters have adopted assumed names and remain active. Project Vote, ACORN's vote manufacturing factory, continues to operate unmolested in ACORN's Washington, D.C. office.

You've been warned.

http://spectator.org/blog/2011/06/30/ob ... -to-acorn#

Another criminal violation! Enough is ENOUGH!!!

Lets hope that the ACLJ proceeds to file a law suite against him or takes this up with CONGRESS!

ACORN continues to receive taxpayer cash, group says


By Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller 11:45 AM 07/06/2011

In spite of a law aimed at de-funding the controversial organization, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is still receiving taxpayer money through an offshoot group.

Legal watchdog group Judicial Watch discovered that the Obama administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a $79,819 grant to an ACORN offshoot, Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA). (NEA’s Obama endorsement comes as union’s influence wavers)

Though HUD intended the grant to be for AHCOA to “educate the public and housing providers about their rights and obligations under federal, state, and local fair housing laws,â€

ACORN REBRANDING TABLE

ACORN Housing Corp. changed its name to Affordable Housing Centers ofAmerica Inc.

State-level chapters that have incorporated as new nonprofi t corporations:Arkansas: Arkansas Community Organizations

California: Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE)

Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island: New England United for JusticeDistrict of Columbia, Maryland: Communities United, Communities UnitedTraining and Education Fund

Louisiana: A Community Voice

Minnesota: Minnesota Neighborhoods Organizing for Change

Missouri:Missourians Organizing for Reform & Empowerment (MORE)

New York: New York Communities for Change


Pennsylvania Neighborhoods for Social Justice (PNSJ) andPennsylvania Communities Organizing for Change (PCOC)

Texas: Texas Organizing Project and Texas Organizing Project EducationFund

Washington: Organization United for Reform (OUR) Washington

http://www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/v1304376160.pd

Bttt

Obama Violated ACORN Funding Ban With Housing Grant to Offshoot, Watchdog Says



A conservative watchdog group is accusing President Obama of violating a funding ban that he signed into law that prohibits the flow of federal money to the now-defunct community activist group ACORN or any of its affiliates.

Judicial Watch says that in March, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued nearly $80,000 in grants to Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA), which the groups says is an offshoot of ACORN.

"This was an ACORN affiliate at the time of the funding ban and it has not changed in sum or substance since then," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told Fox News in an interview. "The funding ban was violated and the administration is calling these new entities. It just doesn't pass the laugh test."

But Alyson Chadwick, a spokeswoman for AHCOA, denied any connection to ACORN.

"We are not an affiliate, subsidiary or ally of ACORN," she told FoxNews.com. "Both the GAO and HUD's General Counsel have done exhaustive work and come to the same conclusion."

A HUD spokesman told Fox News that the department is in complete compliance with the law and added that AHOCA was awarded the $79,819 grant "to provide fair housing and fair lending information and assistance to at least 35,000 minority, non-English speaking and immigrant households in the Miami-Dade metropolitan area."

In September, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued an opinion saying, "The record does not show AHCOA to be directly or indirectly under the control of ACORN."

"It is our view that AHCOA is not presently an affiliate, subsidiary, or allied organization of ACORN," the GAO concluded.

Judicial Watch senior investigator Sean Dunagan told Fox News that the GAO ruling used "strained logic."

The group says the government's website listing federal expenditures identifies the organization receiving the $79,810 grant as "ACORN Housing Corporation Inc." and lists ACORN's New Orleans address.

The group also says that ACHOA maintains the same board of directors, executive director and offices as ACORN Housing.

The group also notes that a HUD general counsel report from September 2010 says that ACORN Housing is "now operating as Affordable Housing Centers of America" and has misappropriated funds from a $3.2 million federal grant.

Although Dunagan admits no laws were broken, he says the bigger issue is the politicization at GAO.

The once powerful ACORN fell on hard times after a series of undercover videos showed its employees offering tax advice to a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute, tarnishing the group's reputation and crippling its source of funding.

Congress passed and Obama signed into law the Defund ACORN Act in 2009 that yanked the organization's federal funding. After private donors held back cash, the group shut down in April 2010.

"Certainly the intent of Congress was not to allow ACORN to change its name and get money," Fitton said.

FoxNews.com's Stephen Clark and Fox News' Nicole Collins contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/07 ... z1RPyhdV2h