The community organizing group Acorn can be paid for work it did under federal contracts signed before Congress banned giving federal money to the controversial nonprofit group, reports The New York Times.

The ban, signed into law by President Obama on October 1 as part of a larger spending bill, states that no taxpayer money can be “provided to” Acorn or its affiliates. The Congressional vote followed the release of videos that apparently show staff members in two Acorn offices advising a would-be pimp and prostitute on how to set up a brothel.

The Justice Department last week said the legislation should not be applied to pre-existing contracts. Since 1994 Acorn has received about $53-million in federal money, largely in Department of Housing and Urban Development grants for affordable-housing services.

Acorn affiliate Acorn Housing closed its El Paso, Tex., office last week and has shuttered offices and laid off employees in several other cities, the El Paso Times reports.

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