Tenney Asks House Appropriators to Defund SBA Administrator’s Discretionary Budget for Illicitly Forgiving PPP Loans to Planned Parenthood

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-22) today led a letter to the House Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Mike Quigley and Ranking Member Steve Womack asking them to to rescind more than $65 million from the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Executive Direction budget for fiscal year 2023 (FY23) after the SBA illicitly forgave nearly $70 million in taxpayer-funded Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). Tenney was joined by 68 of her colleagues on the letter, including the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus Co-Chair Chris Smith (NJ-04), House Republican Conference Vice Chairman Mike Johnson (LA-04), and Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks (IN-03).

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was created by Congress in the CARES Act to provide relief for America’s struggling small businesses in the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the program, SBA was prohibited from issuing and forgiving loans to entities with more than 500 employees across their affiliates, excluding only hotels and restaurants. However, despite these affiliation rules, SBA has forgiven 38 individual loans totaling more than $65 million in taxpayer dollars to affiliates of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), which well exceeds the 500-employee threshold for PPP eligibility. These tax-payer funds may have even been used to facilitate abortions.

“Congress writes the laws and federal agencies like the SBA are bound to abide by them. I am dismayed by the SBA’s lack of transparency and accountability for knowingly violating the law. As a result, I am urging my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee to withhold funding from the SBA’s discretionary executive account for fiscal year 2023 equal to the amount of loans illegally forgiven for Planned Parenthood affiliates. The American people strongly oppose taxpayer-funded abortions, and they deserve better than this,” said Tenney.

Strong support for Tenney’s letter in Congress:

“The Biden Administration’s blatant disregard for the law by illegally granting and forgiving loans to Planned Parenthood with money intended to help struggling small businesses recover from the pandemic is an outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars,” said Congressman Chris Smith. “The House Appropriations committee must immediately rescind the full amount of illicit loans given to the nation’s largest abortion provider and stop the Biden Administration’s shameless embezzling of taxpayer funds to the multi-billion-dollar abortion industry.”

“There is absolutely no reason that Planned Parenthood should have ever received these limited SBA loans meant for struggling small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only did the Administration misuse taxpayer dollars under its own SBA guidance, but it also violated the Hyde Amendment and Congressional intent,” said Congressman Mike Johnson.

“It’s not only unconscionable, but illegal, to send taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood. The Paycheck Protection Program was designed to support working families, not fund abortions. The Small Business Administration’s failure to remedy this gross oversight is a violation of the religious liberties of millions of Americans,” said Congressman Jim Banks.

Support from pro-life and conservative advocacy organizations:

“Planned Parenthood, with over $2 billion in net assets, wrongly took advantage of critical dollars from the Paycheck Protection Program to go towards funding their abortion business. While American businesses were struggling to survive during the COVID-19 pandemic, Planned Parenthood was ending the lives of 354,000 unborn children a year. The abortion lobby is clearly not hurting for cash as they are spending $150 million to elect extremist Democrats who push abortion on demand, paid for by taxpayers, until the moment of birth. Taxpayers deserve accountability. We thank Congresswoman Tenney for her leadership in standing up to the abortion lobby and demanding Planned Parenthood repay every dollar they owe to hardworking Americans,” said Susan B. Anthony List.

“The administration has used the pandemic as an excuse to send billions of taxpayer dollars to individuals and organizations who were never meant to receive them—among these recipients were 34 Planned Parenthood affiliates. Despite assuring lawmakers that they would fix their mistake, the SBA ultimately forgave these loans instead of rescinding them, proving the administration’s true intentions. Thankfully, Rep. Tenney has refused to allow this transgression to stand and has rightfully urged the Appropriations Committee to claw back these funds from SBA’s budget. We applaud the Congresswoman’s efforts and urge appropriators to ensure the SBA is held accountable,” said Garrett Bess, Vice President of Heritage Action.

The letter was also signed by Reps. Rodney Davis, Glenn Grothman, Jeff Duncan, Markwayne Mullin, Andrew Clyde, Brian Babin, Louie Gohmert, Jake Ellzey, Mary Miller, Bob Good, Bob Gibbs, Yvette Herrell, David McKinley, Brad Wenstrup, Pete Stauber, Vicky Hartzler, Russ Fulcher, Randy Feenstra, Adrian Smith, Randy Weber, Michael Cloud, John Curtis, Fred Keller, Byron Donalds, Ralph Norman, Ronny Jackson, Dan Crenshaw, Madison Cawthorn, Lloyd Smucker, Andy Biggs, Scott Fitzgerald, Michael Guest, Garret Graves, Mo Brooks, Bill Huizenga, Doug Lamborn, Thomas Massie, Larry Buchson, Brian Mast, Debbie Lesko, Bill Posey, Ken Buck, John Rose, Jack Bergman, Tom McClintock, Trent Kelly, Jodey Arrington, Nancy Mace, Thomas Tiffany, Joe Wilson, Scott Franklin, Austin Scott, Steven Palazzo, Tim Burchett, Beth Van Duyne, Barry Moore, Alex Mooney, Neal Dunn, Rick Crawford, Diana Harshbarger, Greg Pence, Buddy Carter, Ben Cline, Mike Kelly, and Jackie Walorski.

The full text of the letter is available here.

Related:

• April 27, 2022: Tenney Demands Answers from SBA Administrator About Pandemic Relief Loans Illegally Awarded to Planned Parenthood
• February 15, 2022: Congresswoman Tenney Demands Answers About Federal Pandemic Relief Loan Forgiveness Granted to Planned Parenthood Affiliate
• November 17, 2021:Congresswoman Claudia Tenney Presses SBA Administrator Over PPP Loans Provided Illegally to Planned Parenthood
• January 12, 2022: Congresswoman Claudia Tenney Questions Small Business Administration Inspector General Over Failure to Stop Illegal Planned Parenthood Loans

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