By an 83-7 vote the Senate voted to deny housing and community grant funding to ACORN.
Activists posing as a prostitute and her pimp released hidden-camera videos in which ACORN employees in Baltimore, Brooklyn, and Washington, D.C. offered insights on how to import children from Latin America to work as prostitutes and the undercover pair were offered suggestions on how to commit tax fraud.
ACORN has received $53 million in taxpayer funds since 1994 and the group was eligible for a wider set of funding in the pending legislation, which funds housing and transportation programs.
Just last week, the Census Bureau severed its ties with ACORN, saying it does not want the group’s help in outreach efforts on the decennial count.
Yet, seven senators were still willing to stand by them:
• Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.
• Roland Burris, D-Ill.
• Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
• Bernie Sanders, D-Vt.
• Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
• Bob Casey, D-Pa.
• Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.