Rep. Claudia Tenney, RN.Y., is asking the Small Business Administration to explain why it forfeited $67 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans to Planned parenthood affiliates – loans that these abortion clinics never should have gotten in the first place.
In a letter first obtained by The Daily Signal, Tenney and fellow Republicans told Inspector General Hannibal “Mike” Ware that the Small Business Administration “has decided to forgive” 38 Paycheck Protection Program loans made “in violation of guidelines established by Congress” to Planned Parenthood affiliates.
Those loans totaled about $67 million, the letter said.
“Then, perplexingly, your office discovered in its September 2022 report that Planned Parenthood affiliates are not actually affiliated with the Planned Parenthood Federation of American (PPFA),” Tenney continued. “In response, we ask that you clarify how you came to this conclusion and explain to Congress how, despite PPFA’s clear methods for exercising control over their member organizations, these organizations are not considered affiliates.”
In recent years, fellow Republicans in Tenney have repeatedly accused Planned Parenthood of illegally receiving these loans and called on the Small Business Administration to determine how and why Abortion giant received coronavirus aid.
“Planned Parenthood affiliates abide by company guidelines, follow affiliate mandates, and must be certified before becoming affiliates,” Tenney told the Daily Signal. “So it is clear that they are an integral part of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and are not adhering to the size restrictions of the Paycheck Protection Program, which was intended to keep small businesses and organizations afloat during the rainy days. darkest spots of the pandemic, not create a slush fund for our country’s largest and most politically connected abortion provider.
“Republicans in Congress are committed to accountability in government, and I will continue to fight to ensure tight control over how taxpayers’ money is spent,” she added.
Congress enforced affiliation rules prohibiting the Small Business Administration from making Paycheck Protection Program loans to entities with more than 500 employees and from forgiving such loans to entities with more than 500 employees (at the excluding hotels and restaurants), Tenney said.
“The purpose of this restriction was to ensure that PPP aid only went to small businesses and organizations that were truly independent of large national businesses,” the MP explained. “These small businesses and organizations have historically had a much harder time receiving funding and absorbing shocks. The provision also prevented large companies from organizing themselves into a network of affiliates in order to access these limited funds.
Under former President Donald Trump administrationTenney reminded Ware, the Small Business Administration pointed out that Planned Parenthood headquarters exercises control over affiliates in several ways, such as imposing “affiliate mandates” on local affiliates and requiring affiliates to abide by written bylaws consistent with Planned Parenthood’s corporate bylaws. Strategies.
“Because membership in the PPFA can generate considerable funds and support for the affiliate, the powers held by the PPFA are an effective way for the central office to control its affiliates,” Tenney wrote. “This should have disqualified PPFA affiliates from receiving PPP loans and forgiving them. These PPFA affiliates are not members of any professional association but are part of the largest abortion provider in the United States.
The congresswoman demanded an explanation of “how these methods of PPFA control over its affiliates do not disqualify PPFA affiliates from the PPP.”
“By improperly granting loans to Planned Parenthood affiliates, the SBA has used limited funds that could have been allocated to the many small, truly independent businesses whose applications were not approved until after the program ended,” said she added.
In a statement to The Daily Signal, Rep. Chris Smith, RN.J., said the $67 million in taxpayer funds funneled into Planned Parenthood through the Paycheck Protection Program is “an outright violation of the law”.
“The Paycheck Protection Program was meant to help small businesses struggling with COVID-19 restrictions, not to deepen the pockets of big abortion company Planned Parenthood, which has killed more than 9 million people. innocent children since 1973 and reported over $1.4 billion in affiliate revenue in a single year during the pandemic,” Smith said. “The Biden administration must answer for this blatant disregard for the law and be held accountable for this misuse of American taxpayers’ money.”
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