True to form!
GOP uses ACORN to fight bank redlining law
Some lawmakers want to repeal or limit the Community Reinvestment ActWASHINGTON - Conservative Republicans are capitalizing on the troubles of community activist group ACORN — ranging from charges of voter registration fraud to embarrassing videos of its employees — to revive their long-standing fight against a federal law that grades banks on their investments in poor and minority neighborhoods.
The 1977 Community Reinvestment Act was intended to end redlining, a practice in which banks in effect walled off many inner-city neighborhoods from mortgage loans. But some GOP lawmakers say it has outlived its purpose and is being used inappropriately by ACORN to shake down banks for money. They want to repeal the law, scale it back or at least block a Democratic proposal to expand it.
Critics of the law are linking it to ACORN — a subject many Democrats wish would go away — at every opportunity.
<snip>
The history of the relationships between banks and groups like ACORN goes back to President Jimmy Carter's signing of the CRA in 1977.
The neighborhoods targeted for help by the law were typically in areas where groups like ACORN already were working. Banks initially resisted the overtures, but over time saw a viable market for lending in minority communities, with community organizers in a supporting role counseling potential borrowers.
"The relationships between banks and groups like ACORN weren't necessarily marriages made in heaven, but they've consistently worked well," said Gregory Squires, a George Washington University professor who has written about ACORN.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33282965/ns/politics-capitol_hill/
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
