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Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Republican members of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship sent letters to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Inspector General Mike Ware and SBA Administrator Isabel Guzman requesting their immediate attention and investigation into the unlawful participation of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
In May of 2020, the SBA notified a number of Planned Parenthood affiliates that they had wrongfully applied for 38 PPP loans totaling more than $80 million. SBA determined that these local affiliates were ineligible for the loans under the applicable affiliation rules, and that the loans they received should be returned.
Rubio, author of the PPP and former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, led 33 of his Senate colleagues and 94 Members of the House of Representatives in requesting that Jovita Carranza, former Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA), conduct a full investigation into how 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates applied for and improperly received a total of $80 million in PPP loans.
“On March 23, 2021, SBA provided the Senate Small Business Committee with an updated dataset on all PPP loans as of March 14, 2021,” the Senators wrote. “This data revealed that, not only have most of the PPFA affiliates not returned their PPP funds, as requested by SBA, but two have applied for and been approved for a second draw loan, with full knowledge of their ineligibility. Earlier this week SBA released updated data indicating that even more PPFA affiliates have been approved for PPP loans in the last month. According to the most recent SBA data, at least one additional PPFA affiliate was approved for a second draw loan since March 15, 2021. Additionally, another PPFA affiliate recently applied for and was approved for a first draw loan, despite the fact that the entity had previously returned its loan after SBA determined it was ineligible for PPP.”
In addition to Rubio and Paul, Senators James Risch (R-ID), Tim Scott (R-SC), Joni Ernst (R-IA), James Inhofe (R-OK), Todd Young (R-IN), John Kennedy (R-LA), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Roger Marshall (R- KS) signed the letters.
Background:
On May 19, 2020, SBA determined that local affiliates of PPFA were ineligible for PPP loans under the applicable affiliation rules and size standards, and that the loans they received should be returned. SBA cited the control PPFA exercised over its local affiliates in a number of different areas, such as medical standards, affiliate patient transfers, and an accreditation review process administered every three years as evidence of an affiliated organizational structure. Given that PPFA has nearly 16,000 employees nationwide, SBA determined that these PPFA affiliates were ineligible for PPP and requested that each of the 38 affiliates return the $80 million in PPP funds they wrongfully received.