Vice President JD Vance said he remains open to investigating allegations that Planned Parenthood misused federal funds amid calls from congressional Republicans to probe the organization.
During a Thursday press conference at the White House about actions from his White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, cracking down on visa fraud, Vance acknowledged in response to a Washington Examiner question that he had heard the calls for further inquiry into the abortion provider.
“I don’t believe that we’ve taken significant steps on this task force yet,” Vance told the Washington Examiner in the South Court Auditorium. “But obviously, when we see credible allegations of fraud against any organization of any political persuasion … whether it’s an institution big or small, we take it very seriously.”
Vance added that his task force’s inaction regarding Planned Parenthood is due, in part, to there being “so much fraud in the United States of America that we’re investigating a lot of it, but we’re kind of drinking out of a fire hose.”
“Unfortunately, the U.S. government allowed this stuff to go on for way too long without actually checking on it, so we’re certainly looking into any credible allegation of fraud, but we have not done a large amount of work on that particular issue just because it’s something that we found out about relatively recently,” he said.
Almost 130 Republican lawmakers wrote to Health and Human Services Inspector General T. March Bell last week, imploring the federal government to look into Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding through HHS programs, grants, contracts, and subawards to determine whether there has been any fraud, waste, abuse, misrepresentation, or other violations.
VANCE ACCUSES MICROSOFT OF FRAUD AS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CLAMPS DOWN ON H-1B VISA ABUSE
“Given the significant taxpayer resources that flow through federal health and human services programs, it is critical that recipient organizations operate with transparency, integrity, and full compliance with federal standards,” the lawmakers wrote.
Vance’s comments coincide with a report last week from the Washington Sun that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles had “instructed the Justice Department to move slowly on any abortion-related actions ahead of the midterm elections,” an implicit acknowledgment of the problematic politics surrounding the issue for Republicans.