By Office of Sen. John Kennedy
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Small Business Committee, joined Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and other Republican committee members in urging Small Business Administration Administrator Isabella Guzman to investigate Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s unlawful participation in the Paycheck Protection Program. The senators originally asked Guzman to investigate this issue in April, yet SBA has continued to approve additional PPP loans to PPFA affiliates.
“In fact, since our April 15 letter to you, SBA approved PPP loans for at least two additional PPFA affiliates according to the most recent public data posted to the Agency’s website. This includes a $10 million dollar loan, the maximum loan amount, to a PPFA affiliate just last week. This is unacceptable. As members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, we expect transparency and cooperation with requests for information from your agency,” wrote the senators.
The senators renewed and expanded their April 15 call for an investigation into PPFA affiliates’ PPP loans, requesting the following information:
- A detailed explanation of how two PPFA affiliates were approved for second draw PPP loans despite SBA’s determination that they were ineligible for the program,
- A detailed explanation of SBA’s process for ensuring entities that were determined to be ineligible for first draw loans do not get second draw loans,
- All forgiveness information associated with loans to PPFA entities,
- A description of any and all actions SBA has taken to recover PPP funds unlawfully provided to PPFA affiliates,
- Complete PPP loan-level data for all PPFA affiliates,
- A detailed explanation of why SBA continues to approve PPP loans to PPFA affiliates despite the agency’s previous determination that they were ineligible for PPP, and
- Unredacted copies of any and all agency decisions, determinations, guidance, policies and/or documents related to PPP loans to PPFA affiliates.
Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) also signed the letter.
This April, Kennedy also joined Marshall and more than 20 other Republican senators in introducing the Abortion Providers Loan Elimination Act, which would explicitly prohibit abortion providers, like Planned Parenthood, from receiving PPP loans.
The letter is available here.
