House Oversight panel probing Planned Parenthood

The House Oversight Committee has joined several other congressional panels examining Planned Parenthood in the wake of a series of undercover videos regarding its exchange of fetal tissue. 

Republican leaders on the committee demand to know whether federal funding was used by Planned Parenthood in any exchange of fetal tissue.

{mosads}House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) asked the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) about the issue over the weekend and requested a full breakdown of funding to the group.

Planned Parenthood received more than $500 million from the government during the last fiscal year. Chaffetz and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who leads the panel’s healthcare subcommittee, noted the figure in their letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, made public on Monday. 

“It is not clear whether Planned Parenthood used any federal funds to support transactions involving fetal tissue,” the pair wrote. In another letter to Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards, they asked for information relating to the group’s funding as well as expenditures, including a list of the highest-paid employees going back to 2010.

Their letters came days after a sixth undercover video focused on Planned Parenthood was released. Many of the videos have shown officials with the organization talking about the price of fetal tissue.

The group has faced a barrage of inquiries from Republican leaders of the House Judiciary as well as the Energy & Commerce Committee in the wake of videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing their work with fetal tissue.

Chaffetz and Jordan have asked HHS and Planned Parenthood to respond by Aug. 28.