Defund ACORN Act Bill Applies To All Non-Profits & Companies With Incidents Of Fraud

Whoops: Anti-ACORN Bill Ropes In Defense Contractors, Others Charged With Fraud


(Here is video of ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis appearing on Fox News Sunday recently, where she was questioned by Chris Wallace. GOP Rep. Darrell Issa also appeared on the show.)




(ACORN chooses to fight back against allegations of Fraud and agency misconduct. It may be too late.)

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Going after ACORN may be like shooting fish in a barrel lately -- but jumpy lawmakers used a bazooka to do it last week and may have blown up some of their longtime allies in the process.

The congressional legislation intended to defund ACORN, passed with broad bipartisan support, is written so broadly that it applies to "any organization" that has been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws, campaign finance laws or filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency. It also applies to any of the employees, contractors or other folks affiliated with a group charged with any of those things.

In other words, the bill could plausibly defund the entire military-industrial complex. Whoops.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) picked up on the legislative overreach and asked the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) to sift through its database to find which contractors might be caught in the ACORN net.

Lockheed Martin and Northrop Gumman both popped up quickly, with 20 fraud cases between them, and the longer list is a Who's Who of weapons manufacturers and defense contractors.

The language was written by the GOP and filed as a "motion to recommit" in the House, where it passed 345-75. It carried the Senate by an 83-7 margin.

POGO is reaching out to its members to identify other companies who have engaged in the type of misconduct that would make them ineligible for federal funds.

Grayson then intends to file that list in the legislative history that goes along with the bill so that judges can reference it when determining whether a company should be denied federal funds.

The Florida freshman is asking for direct assistance. He has set up a Google spreadsheet where people can suggest contractors who have been charged with violations and include a link to a media or government report documenting the alleged transgression.

The weapons manufacturers might have a better line of defense in court, however. Immediately after the bill passed, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), a constitutional whiz, noted that the measure appeared to be a "bill of attainder" -- specifically targeting a company or organization or individual -- and is therefore specifically barred by the Constitution. If it's not targeted at one group, then Northrop Grumman is in trouble.

Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Barney Frank (D-Mass.) sent a letter to the Congressional Research Service on Tuesday asking it to clarify, among other things, if the Defund ACORN Act is constitutional.




If Congress Attacks the Mighty Oak of Contractor Misconduct, It Shouldn't Just Settle for an ACORN

Last week, the House and Senate voted to prohibit the federal government from awarding contracts and grants to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a national network of community-based organizations that advocate for low-income families. Congress rushed to cut off all federal funding to ACORN days after several ACORN employees were caught on camera giving advice to a couple posing as a prostitute and a pimp on ways to evade the law.

The House’s bill is called the “Defund ACORN Act”. The bill specifically targets ACORN, but it also applies to “any organization” or its employees who are charged with violating federal or state election, campaign finance or lobbying disclosure laws or filing a fraudulent form with any federal or state regulatory agency.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) is particularly interested in the fraud provision. Recognizing that there are probably worse offenders than ACORN in this area, Grayson is looking for help in coming up with a list of organizations that have committed fraud against the government or employed someone who did. Rep. Grayson will put his list in the Congressional Record as part of a legislative history that judges and lawyers can use to interpret the law.

POGO’s Federal Contractor Misconduct Database is a great place to start. At last count, it includes 87 instances of government contract fraud – federal and state – involving 43 contractors. You might want to focus on Lockheed Martin, which has 11 government contract fraud instances, or Northrop Grumman with 9 contract fraud instances including this $325 million False Claims Act settlement from earlier this year.

Bear in mind that, since 1994, ACORN has reportedly received a total of $53 million in federal funds, or an average of roughly $3.5 million per year. In contrast, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman respectively received over $35 billion and $18 billion in federal contracts last year. (Their totals since 2000 are $266 billion for Lockheed and $125 billion for Northrop.)

Congress should clamp down on contractor fraud and waste, but it needs to keep a sense of proportion. If ACORN broke the law it, should be punished; however, Congress also needs to crack down just as rigorously on the contractors who take an even larger share of taxpayers’ money and have committed far more, or far more egregious, acts of misconduct. POGO hopes the mentality behind bills like the “Defund ACORN Act,” combined with the new contractor / grantee responsibility database and mandatory misconduct reporting rule, reflects a new zero-tolerance attitude toward contractor misconduct.



Activist Financier "Terrorizes" Bankers in Foreclosure Fight But Won't Open Books

Despite receiving Taxpayer money, NACA doesn't provide public reports on either its loan-brokerage business or its campaign to modify mortgages. Jim Campen, an economics professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, says he tried in the 1990s to analyze the performance of loans arranged by NACA, but Mr. Marks refused to provide data.

Mr. Marks says he feared the data would be used by another nonprofit to discredit his group. NACA does provide information to lenders that work with it, he says, but sees no duty to disclose it to the public.

"He's been very effective in shaking money out of the banks," says Mr. Campen, but "he's not one to open up his records to public scrutiny."




United Way asks CEO Gloria Pace King to resign

The United Way of Central Carolinas is asking CEO Gloria Pace King to resign following fallout from a NewChannel 36 report that King was paid $1.2 million last year.

If King doesn't resign by Sept. 30, she will be fired.

United Way Board Chairman Graham Denton says they will pay King two more years of salary at $290,000 per year, but they will not make $1 million in retirement payments.

Denton said the board is taking responsibility for the controversial retirement package, which sparked backlash from donors.

"We owe the community an apology. We are sorry," Denton said at a news conference on Tuesday.

Denton said the board is committed to rectifying the mistake; however, no board member is resigning. The board is calling for a task force to review its makeup and process.

The board also says it can assure the community that it's not paying any more on the supplemental retirement that NewsChannel 36 first reported on nine weeks ago today.

The action comes on the eve of the United Way's annual campaign, which begins next week.

Meanwhile, King has retained high-profile attorney Bill Diehl, who attended the board meeting on Tuesday.

Diehl says his client does not consider this to be honoring the contract and they'll consider their options. He said they've been negotiating with the board's attorney, but he said, "What I do for a living is litigate."

Mac Everett was named as interim CEO of the United Way and will serve through the 2008 donation campaign. Everett is a retired Wachovia executive and past chairman of the UNC Charlotte board of trustees.



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Sources: Huffington Post, OpenCongress.org, Project on Government Oversight, Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, House.gov, Fox News, WCNC, NACA, United Way, Google Maps