A group of 27 Republican senators, led by Sen. Tom Cotton (AR) penned a letter to Attorney General William Barr asking for an investigation into Planned Parenthood’s improper access to Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, which are intended for small businesses, originally per National Review.
The #PaycheckProtectionProgram wasn’t made to funnel taxpayer money to Planned Parenthood, but its affiliates asked for about $80M in PPP dollars—and reportedly got the money.
— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) May 21, 2020
How did this happen, and how can it be made right? We’re asking AG Barr to investigate. pic.twitter.com/edDZTcot6r
It was discovered earlier this week that numerous Planned Parenthood locations successfully applied for PPP funds, to the tune of $80 million, while the organization is already bankrolled by taxpayers annually. The nation’s largest abortion provider explicitly violated the provisions surrounding the loan program that prohibit large corporations from touching the forgivable loans.
“The implementing interim final rule, issued by the SBA on April 15, 2020, explicitly stated that the SBA's affiliation rules apply to the new Paycheck Protection Program, which excludes organizations like Planned Parenthood that employ its type of governance and affiliation structure and exceed the cap on total employees. Trump administration officials were also quoted in public reports, explicitly clarifying that the SBA's interim final rule ensured that no funds from the Paycheck Protection Program could go to Planned Parenthood,” the GOP senators write.
The campaign and advocacy arm of Planned Parenthood publicly acknowledged that the loan program did not allow for the organization as a whole to receive the funds, but applied and received forgivable loans anyway:
"The bill gives the Small Business Administration broad discretion to exclude Planned Parenthood affiliates and other non-profits serving people with low incomes and deny them benefits under the new small business loan program," Planned Parenthood Action Fund said in a statement in March.
As the GOP senators write, the PPP forgivable loan program was created to help small businesses that are struggling during COVID-19. The funds are not intended for large corporations, let alone one that operates off of the taxpayer’s dime:
“The Paycheck Protection Program established by the CARES Act was designed by Congress to help struggling small businesses and nonprofit organizations by giving them access to low-cost loans for expenses like keeping their employees on payroll during this pandemic. It was not designed to give government funds to politicized, partisan abortion providers like Planned Parenthood. The funds in the program are not unlimited, and were depleted once already because of high demand. Planned Parenthood fraudulently taking tens of millions of dollars that were intended to help keep those small businesses and nonprofit organizations afloat cannot stand and must be addressed.”
Indeed, it is suspicious how Planned Parenthood was able to successfully receive PPP loans, given the explicit provisions written by Congress when the legislation passed. With billions in cash-on-hand, and millions of yearly revenue via the American taxpayer, Planned Parenthood is not in need of more government funding while America’s small businesses suffer economic devastation.
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