Pelosi: I'm clueless about cash cut-off

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WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said yesterday she is clueless about an amendment to prohibit government funds for embattled ACORN, although it overwhelmingly passed the Senate Monday and the White House is calling for the group to be held accountable.

"I don't even know what they passed," Pelosi told The Post yesterday. "What did they do? They defunded it?"

The amendment to suspend housing grants was a stunning blow to the community-activist group -- and came as some Democrats and the White House have been backing away from the group.
HUH? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday as she claimed ignorance of Senate action on an amendment (below) calling for the defunding of ACORN.

The vote was preceded by the release of videos by conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute soliciting -- and receiving -- tips from ACORN employees about how to shield income, avoid taxes and set up a brothel.

The issue now goes to a House-Senate conference committee for a spending bill. Its fate is up to Democratic leaders, particularly Pelosi, since the House passed no such provision.

Some fellow lawmakers were surprised that Pelosi wasn't following the issue.

"I think that she's not focused on the issue of corruption," said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who has been hammering ACORN.

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WASHINGTON – The House voted Thursday to deny all federal funds for ACORN in a GOP-led strike against the scandal-tainted community organizing group that comes just three days after the Senate took similar action. "ACORN has violated serious federal laws, and today the House voted to ensure that taxpayer dollars would no longer be used to fund this corrupt organization," said second-ranked House Republican Eric Cantor of Virginia.

The vote, on a provision attached to a student aid bill, was 345-75, with Democrats supplying all the "no" votes.

On Monday the Senate voted 83-7 to deny housing and community grant funding to ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

Republicans accelerated their attacks on the liberal-leaning group a year ago when ACORN, in conducting a massive voter registration drive, was accused of submitting some false registration forms.

On a hidden-camera video released on Monday, two ACORN employees are seen apparently advising a couple that was posing as a prostitute and her pimp to lie about her profession and launder her earnings. The video was the latest in a series that has already led to the firing of four ACORN employees in Baltimore and Washington. It was created by James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles and posted on BigGovernment.com, where O'Keefe identifies himself as an activist filmmaker.

ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson blasted the video shot at the organization's Brooklyn office, saying the group believes the voices of the couple were dubbed over to alter the conversation and make the interaction appear more objectionable than it may have been.

ACORN said Wednesday that it is ordering its own independent investigation of the incidents, while stressing that they were isolated cases.

The Census Bureau, meanwhile, also has severed its ties with the group for the 2010 national census.

Republicans have urged federal officials to go further by launching a comprehensive investigation of how ACORN spends and manages federal money.

"As long as taxpayers are subsidizing ACORN and its affiliates, we need to use every measure possible to ensure that those dollars are being spent and managed appropriately," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., sponsor of the measure that passed the House.

The Senate and House initiatives to cut funding for ACORN won't take effect until the bills to which they are attached clear Congress and are signed by President Barack Obama. The Senate measure is attached to a fiscal 2010 spending bill.

"President Obama needs to indicate whether he'll sign this bill and join us in ending all taxpayer funds for this corrupt organization," House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said after the vote.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Wednesday said the conduct seen on the tapes "is completely unacceptable." He said the Obama administration "takes accountability extremely seriously" and noted that the Census Bureau had determined that ACORN could not meet its goal for conducting a fair and accurate count next year.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a conference call with reporters, called the latest allegations against ACORN "horrible." However, she pointed out that ACORN has many honest employees and was conducting an internal investigation, and that it was up to House-Senate negotiators to determine whether the provision to cut funding would be in the final version of the bill.
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The reporters must of hooked her up with youtube. Personally I thought this Acorn mess was some kind of gimmick until they started releasing more tapes. How could anyone in any business fall for something so stupid?

[virgilcane]

Well she has her own house to keep in order (literally). I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't know the results of a bill in the Senate that concerns what seems to be at the moment nothing much more than a Conservative witch hunt.