Congresswoman Claudia Tenney Questions Small Business Administration Inspector General Over Failure to Stop Illegal Planned Parenthood Loans

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-22), member of the House Small Business Committee, today in a hearing with Small Business Administration (SBA) Inspector General Hannibal “Mike” Ware continued to press for answers on whether Planned Parenthood will receive loan forgiveness for taxpayer-funded Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans the organization illegally received. According to the rules of PPP, Planned Parenthood affiliates are ineligible from receiving loans under the program.

This questioning follows a hearing in November where Tenney pressed SBA Administrator Guzman on whether she plans to deny loan forgiveness to the Paycheck Protection Program loans that were provided to abortion provider Planned Parenthood against the rules established by Congress.

In part, Tenney said, “We know that they’ve (the SBA) struggled at times, and that’s one of the reasons that I partnered with Senator Lee to introduce the Transparency in COVID-19 Expenditures Act. Only through the full audit of COVID-19 emergency programs can we ensure these mistakes aren’t made again. We appreciate your efforts in trying to get these reports out. We do know that SBA has failed to respond to a lot of these policies that you’ve set forth in your reports, which are highlighting where we need to move them (the SBA), and as my colleague Mr. Garbarino said, ‘we want to make sure we push them in the right direction.’ I want to specifically first get into an issue that I had with Administrator Guzman when she was here in November. She said, ‘she was unaware that SBA was illegally providing millions of dollars in Paycheck Protection Program loans to multiple Planned Parenthood affiliates, including a 10-million-dollar PPP loan for Planned Parenthood of Greater New York. As you’re aware, it’s illegal for these federal funds to be used for abortions, and all applicants for PPP must abide by the rules and size standards. Since Planned Parenthood has over 16,000 employees nationwide, they’re ineligible. Have you provided information about the Paycheck Protection loans to Planned Parenthood to Administrator Guzman? Is she aware of these as far as you know? Have you provided her with this information?

Ware responded, “I have not personally provided information on Planned Parenthood to the Administrator. I believe, I hope that the committee knows that we have kicked off that a job that looks into eligibility of nonprofits that will deal with affiliation and size standards, and Planned Parenthood is a part of that. We do have a lot of work that’s going on right now that addresses this, and as a matter of fact, it came as a request, I believe, from the Senate Small Business Committee.”

Tenney pressed the IG, “Are you aware of loans that were made to Planned Parenthood?”

Ware replied by stating, “Yes, I am.”

Tenney replied, “Okay. Do you know if Administrator Guzman was aware of that and if those loans were forgiven?” 

“No, I don’t know either of the two right now off the cuff. Like I said, the work is ongoing. When the team reaches me, I will know,” Ware stated.

Tenney then asked, “Does Administrator Guzman have access to this information, whether the topline numbers, does she have access to see this information anywhere as the rest of us would?”

Ware responded by saying, “I can’t say definitively that she does. I would guess so.”

“Would you recommend that the SBA change any of its internal controls or anything to make sure that these types of loans, these illegal loans that violate either constitutional provisions or provisions of the PPP program, to ensure that SBA does not give these out in the future,” Tenney asked.

“I believe that recommendations will be forthcoming at the conclusion of our review, but the review is ongoing,” Ware responded.