WASHINGTON - It's Betty McCollum vs. Michele Bachmann in a congressional smackdown over ACORN, the community organization that's been the target of Republican attacks since the 2008 presidential election.

Just weeks after embarrassing footage from an amateur sting prompted the U.S. House to defund ACORN, Rep. McCollum, D-Minn., is introducing a similar bill aimed at barring federal dollars to corporations that run afoul of the law.

"It just points out the hypocrisy," McCollum said in an interview Wednesday. "Here we have corporations that have been convicted of felonies, and continue to do business with the government."

McCollum's bill serves as a pointed rebuttal to a GOP-led assault on the scandal-tainted community organizing group, which has registered tens of thousands of low-income and minority voters across the nation.

The bill, dubbed the "Against Corporations Organizing to Rip-off the Nation Act (ACORN)," is a play on ACORN's real moniker, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

Among ACORN's most outspoken critics in Congress has been Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican who sponsored a pair of bills meant to block the group from participating in federal housing and census programs.

"We're pleased to see that Congresswoman McCollum, who has voted at least twice this year to protect ACORN's access to taxpayer funds, has a newfound interest in protecting taxpayers," said Bachmann spokeswoman Debbee Keller.

McCollum and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., were among 75 House Democrats who opposed the measure defunding ACORN earlier this month. Bachmann at the time called it "a tremendous victory for the taxpayer."

A similar action aimed at ACORN in the U.S. Senate won overwhelming bipartisan support, including from Minnesota Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken.