Frank, Conyers ask CRS for ACORN study

Two key House committee chairmen are now requesting the Congressional Research Service investigate ACORN, the community organization that has commanded headlines in recent weeks.

In a letter on Tuesday to CRS Director Daniel P. Mullhollan, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) also ask the nonpartisan research group to probe whether recent House and Senate action to cut funding to the group qualifies as an unconstitutional "bill of attainder."

"Because of the recent charges and countercharges that have been leveled at ACORN and various proposals for action, we believe it is important that CRS conduct a careful and objective analysis of a number of issues concerning ACORN," the two lawmakers wrote.

Frank, it should be noted, was one of 11 House members who did not vote on the motion to reccomit the education bill to which the ACORN funding ban was attached. Conyers, who accidentally voted 'yea', clarified last week he actually meant to vote against it.

Despite their positions last week, the two lawmakers are now hoping to pin down ACORN's history -- including its previous troubles, the amount of federal money it has received, the consequences of its alleged false voter registrations and the effects of its work providing low-income housing to families. The two lawmakers also requested CRS sort out the "conflicting allegations" surrounding the videos that first brought the ACORN matter to light.

But it is their final charge -- whether Congress prematurely and illegally sanctioned the group -- that will likely determine the final outcome of this month's ACORN fallout. The idea that Congress' funding cuts qualify as "bills of attainder" -- a legislative act that punishes an individual or group without trial -- was first expressed by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) during a floor speech last Thursday.

“Today’s Republican Amendment is in blatant violation of the Constitution’s prohibition against Bills of Attainder,” Nadler said in a later release. “Congress must not be in the business of punishing individual organizations or people without trial, and that’s what this Amendment does. Whatever one may think of an organization, the Constitution’s clear ban on Bills of Attainder is there for the protection of all of our liberties.”