When I hear this famous Texas saying, I immediately think of President Obama and how he feels about Texas.  All talk.  No action.  Then again, the action of denying Texas federal disaster aid for wildfires raging over million acres speaks volumes.

Last month, President Obama spoke with a Dallas reporter about the federal budget and denied politics were in play against Texas when shuttles were awarded to other states.  Our President says he loves Texas, despite losing by approximately 10 points in the last presidential election and even professes “You better believe I’m not going not going to write off Texas … we’re going to compete” when discussing his reelection campaign for 2012.

So, riddle me this: Why was Texas’ federal disaster aid declaration request denied?

Wildfires have raged since November 2010 with over 2.3 million acres charred igniting 9,000+ wildfires across our great state. Two people have been killed and hundreds of homes burned to the ground. Texas families are losing their homes and their businesses and yet federal disaster aid is denied that could help citizens obtain low-interest loans and tax breaks to help with rebuilding.

Yes, everything is bigger in Texas and we are loud and proud on how we can take care of our own, but let’s put things in perspective. The Texas Forest Service says this of the current wildfire situation:

• Red flag warnings have been issued across much of West Texas today with critical fire weather conditions predicted.
• Texas Forest Service responded to two (2) large fires yesterday.
• We are currently working on seven (7) major fires that span 586,624 acres.
• 207 of the 254 Texas counties are reporting burn bans.

That’s 81% of Texas under a burn ban.

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Big Government has obtained an advance copy of Homeland Security’s Inspector General report detailing ACORN’s misuse of a federal grant from FEMA.  The report will be released to the public on December 8th. We’ve included it below.

EMBARGOED 12-8-10 DHS IG Report – ACORN Grants

Contacted by Big Government about the report, incoming Chair of the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, Rep. Darrell Issa, had this comment:

It is really unthinkable that anyone would use the guise of public safety and helping victims of a tragedy like Hurricane Katrina as a calculating way to inappropriately obtain taxpayer dollars.  As the discussion over how to reign in government’s growth and spending moves forward, there couldn’t be a more important time to ensure that the grants awarded with taxpayer dollars meet rigorous criteria and are subject to vigilant oversight to ensure that grant recipients are not given access to taxpayer dollars under false pretenses.”

The key things in the DHS IG’s report were:

• “We concluded that the ACORN Institute should not have received these funds, did not fully implement and evaluate the program as approved, and could not substantiate all its grant expenditures.
• “The FEMA did not have sufficient oversight processes to prevent the award or to fully evaluate the use of the grant money.”
• The Technical Evaluation Panel that reviewed ACORN’s grant request recommended it not be funded but “FEMA overrode the panels’ recommendation and awarded the grant without documenting how it addressed the Technical Evaluation Panel’s concerns.”
• ACORN described an Urban Fire Initiative that did not actually exist until they requested the funding:  “the Urban Fire Initiative did not exist prior to the grant application, but was created specifically for activities funded by the FY 2007 Fire Prevention and Safety Grant.  Neither ACORN Institute nor the Urban Fire Initiative was involved in any of the above activities and events.”
• ACORN claimed partnerships with local fire departments but “there was no evidence of these partnerships were in place…”
• FEMA relied on “self certification” and “has no requirement or standard procedure in the evaluation process of the Fire Prevention and Safety grant applications to validate the legitimacy of significant claims and assertions used to qualify an applicant for the grant…”

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Foul! National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health study the bias of soccer referees in calling fouls

Millions of the federal dollars misspent on cars, boats and travel by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Social Security Administration overpaid millions of dollars in Supplemental Security Income payments; Thirty percent of agency’s payments miscalculated

DOJ crime prevention programs uses poetry and rap to fight crimes involving guns and gangs

Investigation into whether the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration made good use of $900 million stopped because the agency’s records are “incomplete”

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California sculpture competition paid for with a Federal Transportation Enhancement Activity grant

A top FEMA official admitted there is no way to assess the effectiveness of homeland security improvements made from the $29 billion spent since 2002

Homeland Security funds spent on a equipment that was never used and probably will be never needed

$1.5 million federal grant will pay to renovate a train station which hasn’t been used in three decades and may never be used again

A $78,280 federal Transportation Enhancement Grant paying to relocate and renovate a caboose not used in decades

Department of Commerce pays to send Ohio Chamber of Commerce members on a two week junket to China

$500,000 in federal funds expected to pay for a party to celebrate St. Augustine’s 450th birthday

The National Park Service will spend more than $300,000 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway

Last week, I told you about a ridiculous FEMA firefighter grant that was awarded to ACORN in Louisiana.  Because of this website’s coverage of the issue and your action, the story grew, and FEMA finally made a statement saying that they would permanently withhold that grant from ACORN.  Thank you for raising awareness of this clear waste of first responder funding that could go to countless needy volunteer firefighter organizations or other first responders.

This week, I wanted to make you aware of a growing concern about the U.S. Census and illegal aliens and how the two could drastically affect congressional apportionment and possibly your own state’s congressional representation. 

In the past, some states have included illegal aliens in the collection of census data, and this has often resulted in the allocation of additional congressional seats to those states – at the expense of other states that lose seats because of the skewed data. 

Illegal aliens shouldn’t be included for the purposes of determining representation in Congress.  I don’t believe that this is what our founding fathers had in mind when they laid out our current system of representation.

Illegal immigration is a very real and significant concern for our country.  We shouldn’t let these states be rewarded for skirting our federal laws.

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Earlier this month and despite the public scrutiny over the voter fraud and felony criminal activity associated with ACORN, the Department of Homeland Security went ahead and granted $997,402 to ACORN under the FY 2008 Fire Prevention and Safety Program. 

To most people, the timing and the amount of the grant would seem off base, but when you take into account the fact that DHS awarded ACORN–an organization with no clear expertise in fire safety and prevention–a fire prevention and safety grant, it’s just plain offensive.

With fire departments all over Louisiana – and the rest of the country – struggling to make ends meet and get the equipment and training they need to protect their local communities, the idea of a million dollar grant going to ACORN is unsettling, to say the least. 

I’ve had grave reservations about ACORN for some time, and over the past year we’ve seen numerous examples of serious allegations of wrongdoing on the part of this organization and its employees across the country.  I simply can’t see the logic behind diverting much needed funding from worthy fire departments to this organization.

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Just a few weeks ago, on September 4th, FEMA handed over $1 million to the ACORN Institute, an ACORN affiliate in New Orleans. The grant is for “fire prevention.” You can find the grant here. Virtually every other organization receiving “fire prevention” grants is a fire deparment or medical facility.

Here’s some background on ACORN Institute:

An affiliate of ACORN, the ACORN Institute, has been a participant in the IRS tax assistance program. The institute prides itself as a one-stop shopping service for low-income households seeking free benefits. In addition to tax preparation, it also provides information on how to secure government aid and to prevent mortgage foreclosure. Among the ACORN Institute’s partners are Citigroup, H&R Block and the Marguerite Casey Foundation. If even many Democrats in Congress are embarrassed by their history of support for ACORN, surely these entities can be as well.

Unclear what any of that has to do with “fire prevention.” According to FEMA, anyone with questions about the grants is urged to contact them at 1-866-274-0960, or via email at firegrants@dhs.gov.