ACORN grant for fire fighting halted

Washington Times:

Obama administration officials said Wednesday there is no chance that ACORN will get a Homeland Security grant it was awarded last month because of a provision in a bill signed into law last week prohibiting any federal funding to the controversial group.

Several members of Congress said they were pleased that ACORN will not get the money, which would have come from funding typically earmarked for fire departments across the country, but they questioned why it had been awarded to ACORN in the first place. At least one also still wants official assurance of a permanent withdrawal of the $997,402 fire safety grant.

"We are perplexed as to how this organization would even be considered for a first-responder grant," said a letter sent Wednesday to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano by Rep. Darrell Issa of California, ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

The Washington Times reported erroneously Wednesday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is part of Homeland Security, awarded the nearly $1 million grant to ACORN in spite of a clear signal from Congress that it intended to cut off funding to the group.

FEMA officials said Wednesday that the award was posted on the agency's Web site Sept. 4, several days before a widely publicized video sting prompted the House and Senate to vote to cut off funding to the group.

FEMA spokesman Brent Colburn told The Times that the agency acted to stop ACORN funding after the Sept. 30 passage of a spending bill to fund government operations.

"None of the funds made available by this joint resolution or any prior act may be provided to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries or allied organizations," according to the bill that President Obama signed into law.

"The group had not [cashed in the grant] and at that point we froze the money. ... The funds will never go to ACORN," he said, adding that the agency thinks the bill permanently bars ACORN from receiving any government funding.

...

Why it was even considered in the first place raises questions. Sen. Vitters is still concerned that the grant has been only frozen and has not been formerly withdrawn. I suspect it will be now.

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