Dr. Rand Paul Stops Democrats Attempt to Give Free Money to Planned Parenthood

Summary

A press release dated March 5, 2021 from Senator Rand Paul, ranking member of the Senate Small Business Committee, says Paul forced Democrats to remove a provision from the $1.9 trillion spending bill that would have allowed every Planned Parenthood to receive money through the Paycheck Protection Program. The release's background section says that under the House passed version of the bill, individual Planned Parenthood locations would be treated as separate and distinct entities eligible for federal assistance under the PPP. It says Paul's team argued to the Senate Parliamentarian that the waiver violated the Byrd rule, and that Democrats filed an updated version of the bill without the provision before the Parliamentarian ruled.

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Full text

Dr. Rand Paul Stops Democrats

Attempt to Give Free Money to
Planned Parenthood

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

March 5, 2021
Contact: Press@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Yesterday, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), ranking member of the
Senate Small Business Committee, forced Democrats to remove a provision in their massive
$1.9 trillion liberal wish list of a spending bill that would have allowed every Planned
Parenthood across America to receive free money through the Paycheck Protection Program
- money which was always intended for small businesses.

“Democrats knew this was never about COVID relief or helping small businesses,” said Dr.
Paul. “It was a shameless attempt to fund their radical agenda on the taxpayers’ backs and |
was successful in preventing that from happening by stopping these funds from going to
abortion mills.”

BACKGROUND:

Under the House passed version of the bill, individual Planned Parenthood locations would
be treated as separate and distinct entities, being eligible for federal assistance under the
PPP. The original congressional intent of PPP was to limit large and well-financed groups,
such as Planned Parenthood from receiving a loan, and instead provide relief to small
business affected by COVID-19, Democrats had planned to waive affiliation rules for
nonprofits to provide paycheck protection loans to Planned Parenthood in the House version
of the COVID-19 relief package. The Paul team strenuously argued to the Senate
Parliamentarian that this waiver would only benefit Planned Parenthood and thus violated
the so-called Byrd rule. Before the Parliamentarian was able to rule on the arguments
presented, the Democrats filed an updated version of the bill that did not include the
offending provision - a concession that avoided setting a precedent.

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