Sen. Marco Rubio has joined more than one hundred Republican members of Congress in demanding the Obama administration update information on how much federal funding Planned Parenthood is getting, and how the women’s health and abortion provider is obtaining it.
Rubio and 123 members wrote Friday to the Government Accountability Office asking it provide that information for the years 2013 through 2015. The GAO has already supplied a report on federal funds for Planned Parenthood and other abortion-providing organizations up through 2012.
“Relying on the promise of openness and transparency often mentioned by the current administration, it is our hope that the requested information be updated and made available to Congress and the public,” Rubio and his colleagues wrote.
“Proper oversight of publicly funded programs is crucial in determining the value of the goods and services provided to the taxpayer, and allow policymakers to more carefully and thoroughly review them,” they said.
Congress recently tried to block Planned Parenthood from getting public funds for non-abortion health services in a bill repealing the Affordable Care Act, which was ultimately vetoed by President Obama. But Republicans are seeking to keep the spotlight on last year’s controversy around Planned Parenthood supplying aborted fetal tissue, and held a hearing this week in a special committee created for that purpose.
While all the GOP presidential candidates say they oppose abortion, Rubio has particularly stood out on that issue by saying he think the procedure should be allowed only if a woman’s life is at stake, and not in cases of rape or incest.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is competing with Rubio and billionaire businessman Donald Trump for the Republican nomination, didn’t sign onto the letter. Seventeen other senators and 106 House members signed onto it.
