Pro-life members of Congress are once again demanding that the Department of Justice (DOJ), now under the leadership of Attorney General Merrick Garland, and the Small Business Administration (SBA) open an investigation into how Planned Parenthood illegally received COVID-related loans via the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
In an email statement to The Daily Citizen, Small Business Committee Ranking Member Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer said, “At a time where small business owners are working tirelessly to open their doors and contribute to their communities again, we must ensure the SBA is using relief funding for its intended purpose – assisting our nation’s hardest hit small businesses, not America’s most tragic abortion provider.
“The SBA must immediately investigate Planned Parenthood’s blatant violation of the rules to ensure guidelines are followed and American taxpayer dollars are protected.”
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress passed the CARES Act, which allowed small businesses with 500 or fewer employees to file for PPP and keep their employees on the books. This would not only help keep businesses afloat but help keep workers employed as well during the immediate economic downturn.
As a business with $2 billion in assets and 16,000 employees, Planned Parenthood does not qualify, but that didn’t stop 38 of the abortion businesses 49 affiliates from applying for those loans. When SBA requested that it return those funds, only seven complied.
Republicans in both Houses of Congress now want to know why Planned Parenthood was allowed to bypass the rules and receive funding that should have gone to small businesses, that are actually small businesses.
A letter written by Rep. Luetkemeyer and Rep. Bryon Donalds states, “Through blatant and well-documented control of its local offices, Planned Parenthood and its affiliates have violated the SBA’s affiliation rules and received millions in taxpayer funds intended for small business relief since the initial authorization of the PPP. It is wholly unjustifiable and inexcusable that the SBA and the Department of the Treasury continue to allow PPP loans for the organizations that are unqualified for such funding. It displays a level of complicity that is intolerable and inappropriate. Federal agencies must be trustworthy and responsible stewards of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars.”
Senators also wrote their own letter, with signatories including Ron Paul, Marco Rubio, James Risch, Tim Scott, Joni Ernst, James Inhofe, Todd Young, John Kennedy, Josh Hawley and Roger Marshall, officially requesting an investigation.
“We write to request your immediate attention to the unlawful participation of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in the Paycheck Protection Program,” the letter states. “To obtain a PPP loan, an applicant must certify that they are eligible to receive a loan under the rules in effect at the time the application is submitted. In making such certification, an applicant is required to apply the affiliation rules applicable to the PPP and identify its affiliates.”
Pro-life members of the Senate have also reported that another Planned Parenthood affiliate applied and was approved for a loan on March 15 of this year.
“Borrowers who make incorrect or false eligibility certifications on their PPP application are subject to severe penalties,” they wrote. “For this reason, we respectfully request that you direct the Department to investigate whether any PPFA affiliates made a knowingly false certification on their applications for PPP loans and pursue all appropriate penalties for any unlawful participation in the program,” Republicans wrote.
By any measure, Planned Parenthood is a financially secure business that was more than capable of supporting both itself and its various affiliate offices during the initial economic fallout of the various state lockdowns. It just doesn’t want to.
Instead, it wants the government to fund as much of its health care operation as possible, to the tune of $618.1 million in 2020. As a comparison, during that same time period, it also received $510 million in “private contributions and bequests.”
Planned Parenthood has the money to cover all of its affiliates, but it would rather use its enormous war chest to lobby for abortion, not help patients with their health care needs.
