FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Two U.S. senators are demanding documents from the Small Business Administration regarding how much COVID-19 relief aid Planned Parenthood chapters received.
Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., sent the letter Friday to Kelly Loeffler, the SBA’s administrator. The letter concerns funds from the Paycheck Protection Program, a creation of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act of 2020, which provided forgivable loans to small businesses struggling with economic disruption from the COVID-19 lockdowns.
“Not a single tax dollar should fund abortions,” Ernst told The Daily Signal. “The Paycheck Protection Program was designed to help Americans struggling during the pandemic, not to go to ineligible recipients fueling abortion-on-demand.”
“The Biden administration obstructed our investigation of potentially illegal applications of PPP loans to Planned Parenthood entities, and we are confident the Trump administration will provide the transparency the American people deserve,” Paul, a medical doctor, told The Daily Signal.
In May 2020, the SBA under Trump notified affiliates of Planned Parenthood that they were ineligible to receive Paycheck Protection Program funds due to federal law preventing the funding of abortion and due to the large size of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
The letter faults the SBA’s efforts to hide information during the Biden administration.
“The Biden administration stonewalled my oversight efforts at every turn and prevented the American people from learning how Planned Parenthood cashed in on COVID,” Ernst told The Daily Signal. “Now that Administrator Loeffler has ushered in a new era of transparency at the SBA, I look forward to working with her to uncover the truth and stop the flow of these funds.”
Planned Parenthood affiliates had wrongfully applied for 38 PPP loans totaling more than $80 million, according to the May 2020 SBA letter.
After President Joe Biden took office, the SBA approved loans to Planned Parenthood affiliates totaling nearly $40 million. While Biden had long championed the Hyde Amendment, the legislation preventing federal funds from bankrolling abortion, he reversed course during the 2020 Democratic primary.
According to the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, the Paycheck Protection Program lost at least $64 billion to fraud.
