ACORN gave 'significantly less' in return says OGR committee

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has issued a second report about ACORN. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is ranking GOP member of the committee.The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has released a new report about ACORN and Service Employees International Union.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), ranking Republican member of the committee, said, “Perceptions that ACORN is a charitable organization are simply wrong and part of ACORN’s efforts to deceive the American people.”

Issa added. “ACORN is a political machine that uses a complex corporate web, connections to the SEIU, and powerful political allies to break laws in pursuit of a partisan agenda.  This report shines more disinfecting sunlight on ACORN’s secretive methods of abusing taxpayer funds and charitable donations.” The report is titled, ‘Follow the Money: ACORN, SEIU and their Political Allies.’

The report said, “[T]he Oversight and Government Reform Committee staff has reviewed over 50,000 pages of documents: from ACORN offices in California and Oklahoma, from ACORN insiders in Missouri, Colorado, New York and Louisiana, and from Secretary of State investigations in nearly every state in the continental United States.”

The first report about ACORN was published in July. The new report follows-up on a number of findings from the initial investigation. 

The new report includes mention of the aftermath of a congressional resolution to stop federal funding for ACORN. ACORN sued and a judge ruled in the organization’s favor. However by the time the ruling came down, the resolution had expired.

The report notes, “According to the Louisiana Department of Justice, ACORN is nearing financial bankruptcy, as most of its donors have cut ties with the corporation. However, under Judge Gershon’s decision, ACORN will continue to receive taxpayer dollars from the Federal Government. In other words, the American people will have BAILED OUT ACORN.”

The new findings confirm ACORN’s labyrinthine structure, describing “a complex organizational structure of overlapping nonprofit community initiatives and political lobbying activities to conceal the partisan political use of taxpayer and private monies originally designated for the public benefit.”

Like some members of Congress and President Barack Obama’s Democrat cabinet, ACORN has allegedly had tax troubles. Issa said the report found, “ACORN is not a charity – ACORN filed corporate income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service and failed to file a Form 990, a requirement for non-profit status in several states where ACORN does business. In some states, ACORN fraudulently informed state Secretary of States that it was tax-exempt in order to avoid state corporate taxes.”

One troubling association involves ACORN ties to the SEIU. Issa provided highlights from the report, and the ACORN-SEIU link is described as: “SEIU and ACORN are substantially intertwined – SEIU and ACORN jointly manage SEIU Local 100; SEIU Healthcare Illinois Indiana; SEIU Local 21A; SEIU Local 32BJ; SEIU Local 52BJ; SEIU Local 880; and SEIU Local 1199. SEIU aided and encouraged ACORN to put pressure on banks, to use its federally-funded affiliates to target political candidates, and to threaten public officials with litigation. ACORN took the lead in these activities and SEIU was the willing accomplice.”

The full report is posted online. One finding comes as no surprise to anyone: “ACORN received large amounts of money from its nonprofit affiliates while giving significantly less back in return, suggesting wide-spread subversive accounting practices.” --Kay B. Day