Letter From Senator Feinstein on ACORN

Dear Mr. Koman:

Thank you for writing to express your concerns regarding the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). I appreciate hearing from you and welcome the opportunity to respond.

ACORN is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that advocates for a variety of social issues such as voter registration and affordable housing. As you may know, ACORN is facing allegations that its employees gave individuals advice on how to falsify tax forms. These are serious allegations and need to be investigated thoroughly.

You may be interested to know that the House of Representatives and the Senate have voted toprohibit federal funds from being distributed to ACORN. On September 14, 2009, I voted in favor of an amendment to the "Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act" (H.R. 3288) for fiscal year 2010, which would prohibit federal funding provided by the bill from being distributed to ACORN or its subsidiaries. This amendment was agreed to in the Senate by a vote of 83-7. On September 17, 2009, the Senate passed H.R. 3288 with the amendment by a vote of 73-25.

On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law, which includes $2 billion for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). Please be assured that this legislation contains no earmarks, and no funding is directed to ACORN. Funding will be allocated by HUD through a competitive grant program. All recipients must exhibit adequate need, have a demonstrable ability to apply the funds effectively and appropriately, and abide by HUD's "Guide to NSP Eligible Uses", which outlines requirements for how funding may be utilized.

Again, thank you for writing. If you have any further questions or comments, please feel free to contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841. Best regards.

Sincerely yours,

Dianne Feinstein

United States Senator

The only issue I have with the Senator is the sex-slavery with illegal (smuggled in), underaged girls and trying to acquire loans for a brothel are not mentioned. As the allegations are not proved, I can see why she did not mention them.

Also, that ACORN is non-partisan is a stretch. They canvassed for Obama in this last election and it was proved and they are indicted on 17 counts of voter fraud. That they are non-profit is only somewhat true as they have a special status where they can make a profit.