Idaho Congressman supports legislation to immediately end all
federal funding of ACORN services and activities

Washington, DC – Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson is supporting legislation to immediately end any financial ties between ACORN and the United States Government. The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, widely known as ACORN, has been the subject of numerous allegations of impropriety, including providing repeated advice for getting around federal laws and voter fraud during 2008 Presidential Election.

“There can no longer be any doubt that ACORN is a partisan, political organization engaged in specific and willful acts to defraud the United States Government and circumvent the law,” said Simpson. “It is appalling that taxpayer dollars are being funneled through ACORN, and the legislation I am supporting would put an immediate stop to this injustice.”

Simpson said simply stopping the supply of federal funding to ACORN is not enough, “I strongly believe the Internal Revenue Service needs to examine the tax-exempt status ACORN now enjoys and the Department of Justice needs to investigate federal criminal charges against the organization and its leadership. The United States Census Bureau has already terminated is relationship with ACORN and I am calling on the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs and all other federal agencies to do the same,” said Simpson.

Recent media reports have disclosed several instances of ACORN staffers assisting people engaged in illegal activities with how they can subvert federal law, including efforts to launder the proceeds from a prostitution ring. These reports follow widespread evidence of voter fraud by ACORN during the 2008 Presidential Election and the U.S. Census Bureau’s termination of contracts with ACORN on September 11 of this year.

The legislation, which does not yet have a bill number, was introduced today by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH). Simpson, who is an original cosponsor of the bill, has also sent a letter to conferees on the Transportation and HUD appropriations bill asking them to include a Senate-passed provision to de-fund ACORN.