ACORN May Lose Gov't Funds after Scandal

(CBS)  ACORN calls itself the nation's largest grassroots community organization, with more than 400,000 members.

It helps low-income Americans find affordable housing and it receives tens of millions in government funding. But, as CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports, that may be coming to an end, thanks to undercover videos that have sparked a huge scandal.

The videos reportedly recorded late July and early August appear to show ACORN employees in several big cities including Baltimore, Washington and New York, advising a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute.

The employees are heard telling the couple how to avoid paying taxes and how to qualify for a mortgage on a home the couple plan to use as a brothel.

"And if anyone asks you your business is a performing artist, which you are, okay, so you are not lying," says one of the ACORN workers caught on the tape. "Performing artist. So stop saying prostitution. Got it."

ACORN says the workers caught on tape were fired but contends the videos were illegally obtained, doctored and deceptive and is threatening legal action against the undercover filmmakers posing as the couple.

"We are experiencing the modern-day version of McCarthyism - 'Are you now or have you ever been associated with ACORN?'" said Bertha Lewis, ACORN's CEO.

But long-term damage to the reputation of the poverty rights organization may already be done. Monday night the Democratic-controlled Senate voted 83-7 to deny ACORN access to millions of dollars in federal housing funds.

"I don't believe it was accidental that this video caught ACORN employees delivering the same message in different cities," said Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb. "They magnify a troubling, systemic and a criminal pattern."

Last week the Census Bureau severed its ties with the organization, meaning ACORN workers won't be part of the 2010 census count. And now House Republicans are asking the IRS to cut ties to ACORN as well.

ACORN's brand of community activism was born out of the civil rights era to organize the poor and give them a bigger political voice. Last year ACORN registered 1.3 million new voters and helped hundreds of thousands of families to buy or keep homes, but critics point out it also faces fraud charges in nearly two dozen states.

"It has no business trying to organize voter registration because it has shown time and time again that it cannot be trusted to do that," said Steve Staneck, a research fellow at the conservative Heartland Institute.

According to a Web site for tracking government grants, ACORN has received 53 million tax dollars since 1994. Some are now questioning exactly where those millions wound up.

[Orlandojon]

Acorn lost funding after years of corruption which the fringe media refused to cover in the news. Now the media is upset because two college kids did what 60 minutes used to do so they are lashing out at Glen Beck for exposing it and the two young people that had the guts to break this scandal wide open. Chaulk one up for the good guys

[boatdocster]

Funny, Blackwater (now XE), Haliburton, KBR, etc, etc scam BILLIONS of dollars in shoddy work, over billing, and out right fraud to Uncle Sam and no one raises an eyebrow.

A few bad apple employees at ACORN are filmed by a FOX NEWS based and funded team, and the government wants to pull their funding. I'd say OK - as soon as Uncle Sam starts fining and pulling the funding from these other lawbreakers.

[shakesth3clown]

Those film's were funded by those kid's who scooped all the other new's media,Fox had nothing to do with the filming, they just aired it. The government HAS pulled all funding. All of this Bush's fault though, cause we all know "everything" is his fault!

[Weboozle]

Reminds me of what CBS stands for...

More truth found out at acorns video dot com.

[txlonghorn]

Why is this something I should worry about?
There are a hundred different frauds and scandals to chose from.
How about -
Pfizer shamed with $2.3 billion fine for marketing fraud
and
Early this month former AIG CEO Greenberg agreed to pay a $15 million fine to settle fraud charges that alleged the company had engaged in deceptive accounting practices
The only reasons to focus on one fairly insignificant possible fraud is because it helps make a partisan point, and it involves those darkskinned people.

[Corwin100Amber]

This doesn't make any partisan point. The undercover work brought to light some corruption within an organization that receives Federal funding. CBS and other 'purported' news agencies USED TO do this type of digging. They no longer do.

Why should you worry? If you don't pay taxes, you shouldn't worry. You shouldn't care about tax dollars being wasted.

As for your 'darkskinned people' comment - you've sunk yourself to a low point. I hope you can grow up.

[Corwin100Amber]

CBS was late in covering this story. But I'm glad to see that they are covering it. Of course they left out a few other facts. The article points out that:

"Last year ACORN registered 1.3 million new voters..."

However, around 400,000 of those registrations were either duplicates, fraudulent or incomplete.

The article also fails to cover the full scope of what these employees were wanting to assist - to smuggle in young, teenage girls for prostitution. They were listening to people say they were committing terrible crimes. Not petty theft, not jay-walking, not spitting on a side walk. If you were in their shoes, what would you do? Wouldn't you call the police - at least after the meeting? I would hope you would kick them out of the office - and call the police.

ACORN has a lot of bad apples. Irresponsible people. They have been getting some bad press for years. But it took these two, making undercover videos, to bring it to the media.

That's what the media USED TO do. CBS, ABC, and NBC have been dropping the ball. It was their role to uncover this sort of corruption. CBS should be embarrassed.

[fewregrets]

Scandal? What scandal? (loyal CBS viewer)

[Ferrell-2]

ACORN is a sleaze organization regardless of the good front they try to project. They are synonomous to THE MOB sans all the murders.

[arealamerican]

i think its about time you hold these people responcable for there deceict and they should have to pay for there garbage

[Roberto2884]

"ACORN" will soon be prosecuted under the RICO statute. This organization is a shakedown racket and it's about time someone brought then down. Unbelieveable that a group of organized criminals can exist and receive funding from our tax dollas in an age like this. Obama's got to go. He's next.

[hawkeyeted]

The folks who should be investigating this crap are deaf, dumb and blind. It took a pair of Twenty-Somethings to get someone to respond.

AG Eric Holder has done nothing. The FBI has done nothing. The media has done nothing. Why? Does the ACORN "nut trail" lead to the White House front steps?