Democrats Strip Spending Amendments Trying to Cut Federal Funds for ACORN

House Republicans complained about overspending on Wednesday after being denied opportunity a night earlier to offer three amendments to an annual spending bill that aimed to stop funding for community organizer ACORN and to investigate House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

The House plans to finish the $64 billion Departments of Commerce, Justice and Science spending bill on Wednesday or Thursday after Democrats outmaneuvered Republicans late Tuesday.

After fireworks on the House floor, Democrats stripped the three amendments that would have cut federal funds eligible to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, limited ACORN's role in the Census and launched a probe into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

ACORN has been sharply criticized by Republicans for allegedly using its large community base to campaign for President Obama's initiatives in violation of its non-profit status. It is also under investigation for alleged voter fraud in the 2008 presidential election.

House Republicans also wanted to fund a $2 million Justice Department investigation of Pelosi, D-Calif., and her allegation that the CIA lied to her about the interrogations of terror detainees.

The three amendments were among 127 total amendments ready for debate Tuesday night.

But House Democrats scrubbed many of those amendments after complaining Republicans were consuming too much time debating the amendments. The Rules Committee wrote up a new set of ground rules for considering the spending bill, including limiting the number of amendments to 33 -- nine Democratic- and 24 Republican-backed provisions.

The three amendments on Pelosi and ACORN were excluded from the final count.

Republicans have no parliamentary redress on those amendments. They expressed their outrage Wednesday.

"With a 40-seat majority, why are they so worried about the power of an amendment?" asked Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., warning, "A dictatorship is quicker than democracy."

But GOP lawmakers also perhaps realized the futility of complaining about legislative debate rules and turned their complaints toward overspending.

"It was an outrageous abuse of the legislative process. But this is not about process. It's about runaway spending," said House GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence, R-Ind.

FOX News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.