Majority Leader Harry Reid rebuffed a Republican request that he call Senate hearings and an investigation into recent allegations against the scandal-tainted community organizing group ACORN.
Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday that he would not ask the Senate committee chairmen or Congress “to do anything that would distract from efforts to address” health care, climate change, an overhaul of the nation’s financial regulatory system and oversight of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Reid made the comments in letters to 28 Republican senators, who had asked for the investigation into the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
The liberal-leaning group has faced heavy criticism following the release last week of a video showing ACORN employees apparently advising a couple, posing as a prostitute accompanied by her pimp, about how to conceal their line of work, evade taxes and handle undocumented, under-age sex workers.
Reid called the actions of ACORN employees and contractors captured on the video “shocking” and said he shared the concerns voiced by Republican senators.
But Reid noted that federal and state authorities are investigating ACORN and warned about politicizing such probes. “I am sure you would join me in praising the effectiveness, honest intentions and impartiality of our nation’s law enforcement communities and inspectors general,” he said.
The group of GOP senators, led by National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn of Texas, lodged the request Sept. 17 amid a flurry of legislative activity related to ACORN.
On that day, Senate and House Democrats joined Republicans in voting in favor of separate GOP proposals to block federal funding for ACORN.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., called Thursday for a thorough investigation of the group and Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee called on the Federal Emergency Management Agency to rescind a nearly $1 million fire safety and prevention grant awarded to ACORN this month.
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