I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3828 
To temporarily suspend the approval or certification of any housing counseling 
agencies of ACORN or its affiliates and require the Inspector General 
of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to conduct an 
audit of any assistance provided by the Department to ACORN and 
its affiliates, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 15, 2009 
Mrs. BIGGERT (for herself, Mr. KIRK, Mr. LEE of New York, Mr. GERLACH, 
Mr. ROGERS of Michigan, Mr. NEUGEBAUER, Mr. PAUL, Mrs. CAPITO, 
Mr. MANZULLO, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr. PUTNAM, Mr. MCCOTTER, Mr. 
CULBERSON, Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. JOHNSON of Illinois, Mr. 
ROE of Tennessee, Mr. EHLERS, Mr. UPTON, Mr. KING of New York, 
Mr. JONES, Mr. LAMBORN, Mr. CHAFFETZ, Mr. BACHUS, Mrs. 
BACHMANN, Mr. BARRETT of South Carolina, and Mr. MCHENRY) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Finan-
cial Services 
A BILL 
To temporarily suspend the approval or certification of any 
housing counseling agencies of ACORN or its affiliates 
and require the Inspector General of the Department 
of Housing and Urban Development to conduct an audit 
of any assistance provided by the Department to ACORN 
and its affiliates, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Suspend ACORN Cer-
tification Act of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. AUDIT AND SUSPENSION OF HOUSING COUNSELING 
APPROVAL. 
(a) AUDIT.—Not later than the expiration of the 6- 
month period beginning on the date of the enactment of 
this Act, the Inspector General of the Department of 
Housing and Urban Development shall— 
(1) with respect to each covered organization, 
conduct an audit of all assistance within the jurisdic-
tion of the Department provided to such covered or-
ganization at any time; and 
(2) make a determination of whether each such 
covered organization has used such assistance in ac-
cordance with all laws, regulations, and other terms 
and conditions of such assistance and cause notice 
of such determination to be published in the Federal 
Register. 
(b) SUSPENSION OF HOUSING COUNSELING CERTIFI-
CATION AND ASSISTANCE.—After the date of the enact-
ment of this Act— 
(1) no covered organization shall be considered 
approved, certified, or authorized under section 
106(e) of the Housing and Urban Development Act 
of 1968 (12 U.S.C. 1701x(e)) or otherwise to pro-
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vide housing counseling in connection with any pro-
gram of the Department or to receive any assistance 
within the jurisdiction of the Department for any 
housing counseling activities unless and until the In-
spector General of the Department of Housing and 
Urban Development has made a determination 
under subsection (c) with respect to all such organi-
zations; and 
(2) the Secretary of Housing and Urban Devel-
opment shall not provide any assistance within the 
jurisdiction of the Department for any housing coun-
seling activities to a covered organization unless and 
until the Inspector General has made a determina-
tion under subsection (c) with respect to all such or-
ganizations. 
(c) DETERMINATION.—A determination under this 
subsection is a determination, pursuant to the audit con-
ducted under subsection (a), that all covered organizations 
that, at any time, have received assistance within the juris-
diction of the Department have used all such assistance 
received in accordance with all laws, regulations, and other 
terms and conditions of such assistance. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
For purposes of this Act, the following definitions 
shall apply: 
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(1) COVERED ORGANIZATION.—The term ‘‘cov-
ered organization’’ means— 
(A) the Association of Community Organi-
zations for Reform Now (in this section re-
ferred to as ACORN); and 
(B) any ACORN-related affiliate. 
(2) ACORN-RELATED
AFFILIATE.—The term 
‘‘ACORN-related affiliate’’ means any of the fol-
lowing: 
(A) Any State chapter of ACORN reg-
istered with the Secretary of State’s office in 
that State. 
(B) Any organization that shares directors 
or employees with ACORN. 
(C) Any organization that has a financial 
stake, directly or indirectly, in ACORN. 
(D) Any organization whose finances, 
whether federally funded, donor-funded, or 
raised through organizational goods and serv-
ices, are shared or controlled, directly or indi-
rectly, by ACORN. 
(3) ASSISTANCE WITHIN THE JURISDICTION OF 
THE
DEPARTMENT.—The term ‘‘assistance within 
the jurisdiction of the Department’’ has the meaning 
given such term in section 102(m) of the Depart-
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ment of Housing and Urban Development Reform 
Act of 1989 (42 U.S.C. 3545(m)). 
Æ 
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