Andrew Friedman

Depressing Democracy

On Wednesday, October 26, the House passed the Federal Housing Finance Reform Act with the non-profit gag amendment intact. Essentially, the amendment prohibits not-for-profit organizations who participate in the Affordable Housing Fund from engaging in any non-partisan voter registration or get-out-the vote actctivity.

If an organization has engaged in voter registration or get-out-the-vote activity in the previous twelve months, they cannot receive federal funding to do work to increase the supply of affordable housing for low-income families through the Affordable Housing Fund.

The justification for these draconian restrictions on not-for-profit organizations' non-partisan efforts to encourage civic participation among eligible voters is that the House wants to ensure that federal funds meant to be spent on affordable housing are not re-directed towards to voter work. Don't be fooled, though. The amendment did not simply prohibit organizations from re-directing federal affordable housing funds. Instead, the amendment prohibits the use of any organizational funds to encourage citizens to participate in our democratic process.

It looks suspiciously like the House of Representatives does not want low-income Americans to exercise their right to vote. Why might that be?

Andrew Friedman: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 5:41 PM, Oct 31, 2005 in Civil Rights | Progressive Agenda | Progressives
Permalink | Email to Friend