A Conviction Here, An Indictment There

I've talked extensively about my recent ACORN amendment to the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act – an amendment that would keep tax dollars from flowing to organizations that have been indicted, or employ individuals who have been indicted, for voter fraud or related crimes. As you may remember, Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank worked to gut my amendment, lowering the bar so that an organization would have to be convicted of voter fraud – not just indicted – before we turn off the flow of tax dollars.

Chairman Frank was undeterred by the fact that the language of my amendment was identical to language passed by Congress in 2008 as part of another housing bill. He essentially pleaded that he’d been forced to accept that language in a compromise with the Senate.

Well, lo and behold: Just yesterday, the House passed – with Chairman Frank’s vote -- the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act with a provision that sets new eligibility requirements for lenders to be approved Federal Housing Administration (FHA) lenders. One of the standards is that the lenders may not employ individuals that are “under indictment for, or have been convicted of, an offense that reflects adversely upon the applicant’s integrity, competence or fitness to meet the responsibilities of an approved mortgagee.” This was in both the original House-passed bill and yesterday’s Senate version. There’s no blaming this on a compromise with the Senate.

So, it appears that Democrats think it is O.K. to set the bar high when deciding who can make FHA loans but the same standard shouldn’t apply to groups directly receiving taxpayer dollars?

Just another example of the Democrats' inconsistency when it comes to distributing your tax dollars, particularly when ACORN is the recipient.