Washington (CNSNews.com) – Although both the House and Senate have voted to de-fund the liberal activist group ACORN, it’s unlikely such a proposal will be enacted any time soon, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) told CNSNews.com.
If House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid really wanted to defund ACORN, “we could have done it yesterday,” Bachmann told CNSNews.com. “It isn’t that I’m saying these votes won’t result in ultimately defunding ACORN, but right now you’ve got a vote on a housing bill and a vote on an education bill. How’s that going to come together?”
(An amendment to strip ACORN of federal funding was attached to a larger student loan bill in the House and to a housing and transportation funding bill in the Senate. Bachmann questioned how amendments on two different bills in the two chambers would be reconciled. She says Democrats will try to strip the ACORN language from the larger bills, and therefore she advocates a separate, stand-alone bill to end all federal funding for ACORN.)
“My point I’m trying to make to people is: Yes, we have a vote. Let’s make sure it’s not a CYA (cover your ass) vote,” she continued. “Let’s make sure that it’s a real vote to defund ACORN. Until it’s on a bill that actually has a chance of passing and that the president is going to sign, this allegedly criminal enterprise is going to continue.”
Bachman is among the Republicans taking the lead in calling for more investigations into the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN), which was a strong supporter of President Barack Obama and other Democrats.
ACORN has been under fire after hidden camera videos surfaced showing ACORN officials appearing to advise a couple -- posing as a prostitute and pimp. The couple said they wanted to start a prostitution ring with underage girls. One ACORN official in Baltimore told the couple to lie about the prostitution for tax and other legal reasons.
That and other similar videotaped episodes prompted ACORN to fire at least four of its employees. The undercover investigation was conducted by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles and was posted on Andrew Breibart’s BigGovernment.com. The video aired repeatedly on Fox News Channel.
The hidden-camera videos -- shot at ACORN offices in Baltimore, Washington, New York and two locations in California -- are the latest trouble for an organization that is under investigation for alleged voter registration fraud in the 2008 election. The Nevada Attorney General’s office indicted the organization on state charges.
The Obama presidential campaign boasted that ACORN’s political action committee endorsed its candidate in the Democratic presidential primary. The Obama campaign also spent $800,000 on a get-out-the-vote effort by Citizens Services Inc., a subsidiary of ACORN.
In an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” President Obama backed a probe into ACORN, in light of the hidden-camera videotape. “You know, what I know is, is that what I saw on that video was certainly inappropriate and deserves to be investigated,” Obama told George Stephanopoulos.
Asked if Obama would commit to cutting off funding for the group, Obama responded, “George, this is not the biggest issue facing the country. It's not something I'm paying a lot of attention to.”
Obama formerly worked as an attorney for Project Vote, a group under the ACORN umbrella. The Census Bureau announced last week that ACORN has been dropped from participation in the 2010 Census.
ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis, appearing on Fox News Sunday, said she was “outraged” by the hidden camera videos. “I was outraged by it. Everyone should be. And I can understand how the Congress was also.”
Lewis said ACORN continues to make sure “that all of our employees -- if they're too stupid to understand that they are not reaching professional standards, we terminate them.”
Asked if she hopes President Obama will veto any measure to strip federal funds for ACORN, Lewis responded, “Here's what we want. President Obama is a very smart, very thoughtful person. What he does is his decision. I would never presume to tell the president whether he should veto a bill or not.”
ACORN announced onWednesday that it will conduct an internal investigation.
The organization will work with its advisory council, which includes prominent supporters of President Obama, such as John Podesta, president of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, and Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, to name an independent auditor and investigator, ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis said in a written statement.
“CYA votes mean nothing" if don't actually defund ACORN, Bachmann said. Bachmann spoke to CNSNews.com shortly after participating in a health care panel at the weekend Values Voters Summit, sponsored by the conservative Family Research Council.