LEWISTON — After supporting Monday’s 83-7 vote to prevent federal stimulus money from being directly or indirectly used to fund ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins continued Wednesday to have concerns about the group.

Collins, a Maine Republican, and U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent letters to three federal agencies expressing their concerns and suggesting action be taken.

Collins and Issa requested the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Corporation for National and Community Service and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to investigate the use of all funds ACORN has received from those agencies. The lawmakers also asked the agencies to establish protections to prevent future misuse.

They recommended the agencies refer any evidence of wrongdoing to the Commission’s Suspension and Disbarment Official to determine whether ACORN should be put on the Excluded Parties List. Placement on that list would bar ACORN from receiving nearly all federal contracts and subcontracts as well as certain types of federal assistance and benefits.

Collins and Issa noted that ACORN and its affiliates had received more than $53 million from the government since 1994 and could receive far more from the $75 billion “Making Home Affordable” program.

Collins and Issa listed many examples of questionable activity on the part of ACORN and its affiliates.

“As you are probably aware, states and localities have issued indictments related to activities by ACORN employees and volunteers during last fall’s election,” they wrote. “In addition, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a minority staff report alleging that ACORN may have engaged in serious wrongdoing.”

Collins and Issa cited the 1997 House Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities finding ACORN affiliates had improperly participated in partisan political activities.

Additionally, in their letter to the Corporation for National and Community Service, Collins and Issa referenced the Corporation’s own 1995 report in which the Inspector General identified “fundamental problems with the manner ACORN and its affiliated entities operated in the context of their status as a federal grantee.”

Sen. Olympia Snowe’s office was also contacted for comment on ACORN, but a response had yet to be received Wednesday night. Snowe also voted for the amendment to cut ACORN’s stimulus funding.

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