When Planned Parenthood received $80 million in forgivable loans in the latest coronavirus-relief package, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and dozens of other senators called for the Small Business Administration to investigate.
They argued the law restricted organizations the size of Planned Parenthood, with its tens of thousands of employees, from receiving such funds.
Now many of those senators have written to SBA administrator Jovita Carranza insisting that precautions be adopted so that “the nation’s largest and most notorious abortion provider” receives no more tax money, as it did “earlier this year in defiance of the law.”
A new coronavirus relief package adopted by Congress on Dec. 21 includes a second round of Paycheck Protection Program loans.
“Eligibility requirements for these ‘second-draw’ loans are similar to the requirements for initial loans authorized under the CARES Act,” they explained. “Applicants … had to have no more than 500 employees across all of their affiliates.”
“Planned Parenthood employs about 16,000 people nationwide,” the senators wrote. “The group’s national organization, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, jealously exercises control over local affiliates, subjecting them to uniform bylaws, accreditation, frequent reviews, and mandates about what services they must provide.
“Planned Parenthood affiliates thus are ineligible to receive PPP loans, as part of an affiliated group that employs far more people than the number allowed for an initial or second-draw PPP loan.”
While the original distributions should be repaid, the letter said, the urgent task now “is to ensure Planned Parenthood affiliates do not receive additional PPP loans intended for struggling small businesses and non-profits.”
“We urge you to refer any Planned Parenthood affiliate that applies for such a loan to the Department of Justice for prosecution,” the senators said. “Their attempts to apply for PPP loans are naked attempts to defraud the United States government.”
The signers included Sens. Tom Cotton, John Barrasso, Marsha Blackburn, John Boozman, John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, Steve Daines, Joni Ernst, James Inhofe, Jim Lankford, Cynthia Lummis and Mitch McConnell.
The American Center for Law and Justice, which fought for return of Planned Parenthood loans, said the “abortion juggernaut has demonstrated a complete lack of compunction when it comes to swiping money away from Americans.”
ACLJ noted Planned Parenthood already has “reported record profits year after year while also siphoning off a half-billion in taxpayer funds from the federal government.”
“But would we really expect anything less from the organization that we told you didn’t hesitate to kill over 345,000 innocent babies in its last reported year alone, breaking its own record?” the organization said.
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