A group of Republican senators Thursday urged the Justice Department to investigate how dozens of Planned Parenthood affiliates received more than $80 million in coronavirus relief loans, arguing the organization’s billion-dollar revenue should have made those affiliates ineligible.
In a letter to Attorney General William P. Barr, the senators pointed to a statement by Planned Parenthood’s political action committee, which said the Small Business Administration had “broad discretion to exclude Planned Parenthood affiliates and other non-profits.”
The Republicans say that proves Planned Parenthood knew it was ineligible for the loans, thus making the applications an act of fraud.
“It seems clear that Planned Parenthood knew that it was ineligible for the small business loans under the CARES Act long before its affiliates fraudulently self-certified that they were eligible,” the Republicans wrote. “As you know, fraudulent loan applications can trigger both civil and criminal penalties.”
The letter was signed by 27 Republican senators, including Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas, John Kennedy of Louisiana and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.
A total of $80 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans went to 37 Planned Parenthood locations across the country, Fox News reported on Tuesday.
Planned Parenthood has defended the loan, saying it qualified for the loans under the Small Business Administration’s requirements.
“Like many other local nonprofits and health care providers, some independent Planned Parenthood 501(c)(3) organizations applied for and were awarded loans under the eligibility rules established by the CARES Act and the Small Business Administration (SBA), which they met,” said Jacqueline Ayers, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s vice president of government relations and public policy, in a statement.
But the Republicans say the loans are being misused because the Paycheck Protection Program was designed to assist local small businesses struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“[The PPP] was not designed to give government funds to politicized, partisan abortion providers like Planned Parenthood,” they wrote. “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,” the letter continued.
