(CNSNews.com) -- Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), the man who is shepherding the health-care reform bill through the Senate, says he doesn't know for sure, but the controversial Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) could qualify to receive health-care grants under a provision of the bill that provides money for groups that are members of a "national network of community based organizations." The grants are designed to fund groups that will "measure" people's health-related behavior on the community level, including whether they are gaining or losing weight, eating the right foods, getting exercise, using tobacco, or engaging in other personal behaviors targeted for federal monitoring by the secretary of health and human services.
"I don't believe so, but they could be," Dodd told CNSNews.com. "I just don't want to say categorically it's the case."
Dodd (D-Conn.), who is substituting for the ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) as acting chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, is the top Senate Democrat responsible for formulating the Affordable Health Choices Act.
Under the "Creating Healthier Communities" provision of the bill (found on page 382), grants could be awarded to only three types of "entities:" state governments, local governments and groups that are members of a "national network of community-based organizations."
But when CNSNews.com asked, Dodd could not rule out that the controversial group ACORN could benefit from this provision in his bill.
"I'm not saying yes or no, I just don't know. I don't think it's a blanket thing that anyone applies necessarily," he told CNSNews.com. "There would have to be criteria by which an organization qualifies to receive those grants."