[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 130 (Tuesday, September 15, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H9539]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               THOROUGH INVESTIGATION OF ACORN WARRANTED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I am only going to speak for 
about a minute because I am going to be a little bit redundant.
  The last couple of nights we have been talking about the ACORN 
organization. The ACORN organization over the past couple of decades 
got, you know, 30, 40, 50 million dollars for their services, quote/
unquote. Now in the last authorization and appropriation bills, they 
have gotten $8.5 billion, and this is an organization in just the last 
couple of weeks we found has been corrupt. They have been extolling the 
virtues of setting up a prostitution ring with young women coming into 
the country or being brought into the country illegally. And it is 
caught on television. It is caught on tapes.
  It is really tragic that an organization like that should have any 
amount of legitimacy, let alone get taxpayers' dollars.
  Tonight, I come here for a minute to say we need a thorough 
investigation of ACORN and why they have been authorized to get up to 
$8.5 billion in taxpayers' money for the services that they perform. 
There is something funny going on here, and a lot of my colleagues on 
the other side of the aisle have been reluctant to move towards an 
investigation. And the White House hasn't said much about this. I think 
probably because the President was the beneficiary of a lot of support 
from the ACORN organization when he was running for President.
  Nevertheless, this should be investigated very thoroughly. We should 
not have a corrupt organization, known to be corrupt, proven to be 
corrupt. You see it every night on television. We should make sure that 
they don't get one dime of taxpayer dollars, and since they have been 
getting this money and we have authorized $8.5 billion more for them to 
be able to utilize, there needs to be an investigation.
  Now, the leader, the Republican leader of the House, has authored a 
letter which has been signed by many Members of the minority. I would 
urge Members on the majority side of the aisle to join with us in 
signing that letter requesting an investigation. This is something that 
should be done. It should not be postponed. We should get to the bottom 
of why ACORN got this money and why they have been doing what they have 
been doing.

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