Trump Demands Planned Parenthood Return $80 Million “Improperly” Received COVID Stimulus Funds or Face Prosecution

Before the last stimulus package was passed, the Trump administration took strategic steps to ensure that Planned Parenthood did not receive the funds.

Yet after the bill was signed, Planned Parenthood affiliates applied and received $80 million total.

These monies were designated for small businesses.

According to initial reports from the federal government, the affiliates "improperly" applied and were therefore able to pass through the system.

Now, Fox News is reporting that the Trump administration is demanding the affiliates to return over $80 million in funds:

Thirty-seven Planned Parenthood affiliates applied for and received a total of $80 million in loans from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight" has learned -- and now the federal government wants the money back, saying the affiliates should have known they weren't eligible for the coronavirus stimulus payouts.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) is reaching out to each involved Planned Parenthood affiliate explaining that affiliates of larger organizations with more than 500 employees aren't eligible for PPP distributions, Fox News is told. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PFFA) alone has had more than 600 employees.

A Planned Parenthood affiliate in Metropolitan Washington (PPMW), for example, will receive a letter stating that although self-certified that it was eligible for a $1,328,000 PPP loan in accordance with the SBA's affiliation rules, it will need to return the money.

PPMW's request for money from the Trump administration came just months after the affiliate's president and CEO, Laura Meyers, promised to turn down federal funds.

[...]

The SBA warned more "severe penalties" were possible, beyond mandatory repayment. In particular, incorrect or false eligibility certifications by PPP recipients could result in criminal or civil sanctions if the SBA determined borrowers made knowingly false statements, the SBA letter read.

The letter explained that PPFA affiliates clearly were covered by the PPP affiliate rules. "PPFA's bylaws, a version of which is publicly available, reveal that becoming a PPFA affiliate requires a certification by the PPFA board," the document continued. "Once certified, "[e]ach Affiliate shall be governed by written bylaws, which conform to PPFA policies."

The largest single government loan was a $7.5 million allotment to the Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties in California. One Planned Parenthood affiliate received a loan but declined it.

After this report was published, Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called for an investigation and said the money needed to be returned, warning that criminal prosecution may be appropriate. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and James Lankford, R-Okla., also demanded Planned Parenthood return the funds.

Rubio, who has served as chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, said Planned Parenthood's violation of PPP rules was "clear."

“There is no ambiguity in the legislation that passed or public record around its passage that organizations such as Planned Parenthood, whose parent organization has close to half a billion dollars in assets, is not eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program,” Rubio said. “Those funds must be returned immediately. Furthermore, the SBA should open an investigation into how these loans were made in clear violation of the applicable affiliation rules and if Planned Parenthood, the banks, or staff at the SBA knowingly violated the law, all appropriate legal options should be pursued.”

The Trump administration has been very clear that the funds were NOT meant for Planned Parenthood or any organization like them.

The fact that they had the nerves to "improperly" apply and receive the funds speaks volumes to the lack of ethics in the organization's leadership.

It is also clear based on the above statements that if Planned Parenthood does not return the money, they will likely face federal prosecution.

The fact that Planned Parenthood received $80 million is not the Trump administration's fault.

They spent a lot of resources to ensure that the organization did NOT receive the money.

But instead, affiliates improperly applied and received the funds. 

It appears to be manipulation and deceit on the part of Planned Parenthood, not the Trump administration.

On April 30th, The Daily Signal published an article detailing exactly how the administration would block the funds from going to Planned Parenthood:

The Trump administration has acted to ensure that no funds from the new Paycheck Protection Program, set up to assist small businesses battered by COVID-19, will go to Planned Parenthood.

“President Trump is committed to ensuring Paycheck Protection Program money is used for saving jobs at small businesses, not getting the government into the business of funding abortion,” a senior administration official told The Daily Signal.

“While not all Americans share President Trump’s pro-life beliefs, there is broad bipartisan support for the idea that American taxpayers should not have to fund abortion,” the official said Wednesday night.

The Paycheck Protection Program, designed to shore up small businesses that had to close or otherwise were affected by the coronavirus pandemic, allows businesses with fewer than 500 employees to be forgiven for the principal of a government loan if they don’t lay off their employees. The employers still have to pay the interest on the loans, overseen by the Small Business Administration.

The program’s initial $350 billion fund, established in legislation passed March 30 by the House, was depleted April 16. The program received $320 billion in new funding in a bill passed Thursday by the House and signed into law Friday by Trump.

The senior administration official told The Daily Signal that the Small Business Administration’s mission already excludes big enterprises such as Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.

“The SB in SBA is for ‘small business,’ so SBA has regulations called ‘affiliation rules’ to define when small employers might be so closely affiliated with a parent organization that they should be considered one large employer,” the official said...

This means that even though it was "affiliates" who received the funds, they're still considered part of Planned Parenthood.

They are not eligible.

This was clear from the very beginning.

And Trump is RIGHT once again to demand that these organizational affiliates return $80 million in taxpayer money!