By Staff
Jo Bonner
U.S. House of Representatives
In recent days, there have been an increasing number of news reports of likely criminal activity involving the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
ACORN claims to be the nation’s largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families; however, the number of reports of ACORN’s illegal and fraudulent activities continues to grow.
On Sept. 9, 2009, CNN reported, “Arrest warrants were issued Wednesday for 11 Florida voter registration workers who are suspected of submitting false information on hundreds of voter registration cards, according to court documents…The workers were employed by ACORN to canvass neighborhoods in Florida and assist people in registering to vote ahead of the 2008 election…Authorities allege the workers submitted false information on the cards, which were to be submitted to the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections.”
On Sept. 10, 2009, Fox News reported, “ACORN officials videotaped telling a ‘pimp and prostitute’ how to lie to the IRS.” 
The videotape documented ACORN officials in its Baltimore, Maryland, Brooklyn, New York, Washington, D.C. and San Bernardino, California, offices advising “the pimp” on how to get a housing loan, launder money, and falsify tax documents for a proposed brothel that would employ underage girls smuggled into the United States from a foreign country.
U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, recently issued a report on the structure and operation of ACORN. 
According to the report, ACORN affiliates have received more than $53 million in federal funds from 1994 to 2008.  The organization likely has received substantially more indirectly through states and localities that receive federal block grants.
Last week, I joined Minority Leader John Boehner and about 130 of my House Republican colleagues in writing to President Obama asking him to disclose and terminate all taxpayer funding of ACORN.   
I also became one of 144 Republican cosponsors of Leader Boehner’s bill, the Defund ACORN Act (H.R. 3571), which would prohibit any organization, including ACORN, that has been indicted for violations of state or federal election laws, or that employs an individual who has been indicted for violations of state or federal election laws, from accessing federal taxpayer dollars.
House Republicans were successful in our united effort.  On Thursday, the House voted 345-75 to cut off all federal funding to ACORN.
Joe Bonner serves as a member of the House of Representatives.