Top Republicans demanded an investigation into Planned Parenthood Tuesday after reports that some of its clinics were granted loans under the coronavirus small business stimulus program.
Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest provider of abortions and has assets and income that put it well over the limits placed on the Paycheck Protection Program, GOP senators said.
Sen. Marco Rubio, chairman of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, said the money must be returned and the administration must investigate whether Planned Parenthood applied for the loans in bad faith.
“There is no ambiguity in the legislation that passed or public record around its passage that organizations such as Planned Parenthood, whose parent organization has close to half a billion dollars in assets, is not eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program,” the Florida Republican said.
Fox News reported that 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates applied for loans, and were awarded a total of $80 million.
Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma Republican, said Planned Parenthood’s national budget exceeds $1 billion a year, also making it ineligible.
“Every dollar Planned Parenthood took from the Paycheck Protection Program was a dollar that did not get to legitimate small businesses that were eligible,” he said.
In March, just before the stimulus bill passed Congress, Planned Parenthood seemed to admit that it was not going to qualify for money.
“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,” the organization said at the time.
Under the PPP, businesses were allowed to self-certify that they were eligible for the money.
The money was intended to help companies maintain their payroll during the pandemic. The loans can be forgiven if they do so.
But there have been a number of purported hiccups, with several major national restaurant chains taking loans, then returning them amid bad publicity and accusations that they were ineligible.
Fox reported that the Small Business Administration, which is overseeing hundreds of billions of dollars in PPP loans, will be reaching out to the Planned Parenthood affiliates to ask for the money back.
