Planned Parenthood has tapped government relations firm Epplin Strategic Planning for Capitol Hill representation in a bid to protect the organization’s federal funding amid ongoing political attacks.

The health services and contraceptive giant, which sees 2.5 million patients annually through a network of about 650 clinics across the U.S. has been a longtime funding target by the GOP.

Planned Parenthood

House Speaker Paul Ryan in January vowed to cut off federal tax dollars for Planned Parenthood as part of a larger measure to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, two U.S. Senators — Joni Ernst (R, IA) and James Lankford (R, OK) — have co-sponsored the bill S.241, or “Protect Funding for Women’s Health Care Act, which would “prohibit federal funding of Planned Parenthood Federation of America” and instead re-allocate those funds to women’s healthcare providers that don’t provide abortion services.

Planned Parenthood isn’t funded directly by the federal government; the majority of its funding comes in the form of preventive care reimbursements through Medicaid or other publicly funded health care programs such as Title X (about 60 percent of PP patients rely on programs such as Medicaid and Title X for their preventive and primary care, according to the organization). Planned Parenthood received $554 million in federal funding and grants for the 2014-2015 fiscal year. Other funding comes from private contributions. By law, federal funding cannot be allocated for abortions.

The Planned Parenthood account will be managed by Epplin president and founder Robert Epplin, a former Gephardt Government Affairs VP who was previously legislative director to Senator Susan Collins (R, ME) and also handled tax and trade matters for Sen. Gordon Smith (R, OR). Epplin, who began his Senate career as advisor to Sen. Bob Packwood (R-OR) on budgetary, economic, foreign affairs, and defense issues, launched his government relations in early 2015.