A bill in the U.S. House of Representatives provides for $600 million in new affordable housing funds.
But there is a catch!
Non-profit organizations that provide voter registration or are affiliated with any organization that provides voter registration are barred from receiving and distributing the new money.
The anti-voter registration language was inserted at the request of the Republican Study Committee which has expressed the belief that low income housing groups are too liberal and are partisan in their voter registration activities. Here’s a link to the story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune from Friday.
The Bill HR 1461 is scheduled to come up for a vote Thursday or Friday of next week. Under normal House rules the anti-voter registration language could be taken out. It is not clear if House leadership will prevent that and force an up or down vote on the entire package.
What an outrage! So now the Repugs don’t want poor people voting – because that’s too partisan!! Shall we look into the voter registration efforts of Halliburton? Just what kind of democracy to these repugs envision?
