[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 193 (Thursday, December 15, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H8974]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    PLANNED PARENTHOOD INVESTIGATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Olson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OLSON. Madam Speaker, last week, seven former Planned Parenthood 
employees wrote a joint letter to the Energy and Commerce Committee 
detailing the facts that many of my colleagues and I have long believed 
to be true. Planned Parenthood is grossly misusing taxpayer funds.
  These former employees revealed that clinic staff failed to properly 
follow correct billing procedures to prevent Federal tax dollars from 
being used to fund abortion services as demanded by law. They outlined 
other horrific violations, including failure to properly notify parents 
when a vulnerable young girl may have been a victim of rape and is 
seeking an abortion.
  These former employees also wrote that abortion is indeed offered as 
a means of family planning, in blatant violation of Federal law. For 
years, we feared that Planned Parenthood was engaged in several of 
these abuses, and now we have the inside information from brave folks 
who have confirmed these fears.
  In an effort to shed light on how much taxpayer money is at stake and 
to keep a promise I made to the people of Texas 22 when I was first 
elected, I requested a GAO report to give the public a full accounting 
of exactly how much Federal money is sent to organizations that perform 
abortions each year. We learned that over a 7-year period, the taxpayer 
price tag to these organizations is almost $1 billion.
  And last week I was further sickened to learn that, according to the 
former Planned Parenthood employees, between Federal and State 
contributions, Planned Parenthood alone receives roughly $1 million per 
day of taxpayer funds. And yet they're accountable to no one, including 
the taxpayers who morally oppose these funds being used to end an 
innocent life.
  I thank my Energy and Commerce colleague, Subcommittee Chairman Cliff 
Stearns, for launching an investigation into this matter. And I'm 
confident that the full committee will do a thorough audit of this 
corrupt organization. An investigation is sorely overdue.
  Madam Speaker, behind me is a picture of one of the largest Planned 
Parenthood clinics ever built. Tragically, it's located right outside 
of the district I represent in Houston, Texas. It's surrounded by four 
low-income minority neighborhoods, Planned Parenthood's target 
audience.
  This massive building has an entire floor dedicated to abortion 
services and rumored late-term abortions. And because of the seven 
former Planned Parenthood employees, we know doctors and clinic 
employees have illegally encouraged young girls to abort an unborn 
child as a means of family planning, all on the taxpayer dime.
  Americans should be outraged to learn of this horrific and possibly 
illegal use of their tax dollars. Planned Parenthood must be held 
accountable.
  I will continue to fight to cut off every single tax dollar that 
Planned Parenthood and similar organizations receive. We can never 
tire. We can never rest in our moral obligation to protection our 
Nation's unborn children.

                              {time}  1050

  Federal tax dollars are legally prohibited from being used for 
abortions. Under our Constitution, the Obama administration has a duty 
to enforce these laws. Under the same Constitution, the Congress has a 
duty to ensure that the executive branch follows the law of the land. I 
applaud those Americans who bravely raise their voices on behalf of 
innocent children who don't have one and maybe never will.

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