STEARNS SETS VOTE TO ISSUE SUBPOENA FOR DOCUMENTS REQUESTED 120 DAYS AGO AND AFTER OMB OFFICIAL A NO SHOW AT HEARING

Washington, Jul 13 - Using funds from the Stimulus Act, the Department of Energy (DOE) targeted clean energy programs for loan guarantees, including $535 million for Solyndra, Inc. of Fremont, California. Since finalizing the loan guarantee in September 2009, Solyndra closed one of its factories, let go workers, and postponed the expansion of the plant that received the loan guarantee. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is charged with reviewing and approving these loan guarantees.

"As part of our oversight responsibilities, the Energy and Commerce Committee is looking into how this loan guarantee program was run and requested documents from OMB related to Solyndra," said Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. "OMB has refused on numerous occasions to provide all of the documents requested, even after we reached an agreement that OMB would share the sought information. In addition, the OMB witness scheduled to testify at a hearing on June 24th on this matter failed to show up. We also worked with the Democrats on the panel in trying to gain OMB's cooperation to no avail. On Thursday, July 14th at 12:00 PM, the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee will convene to consider a resolution authorizing the issuance of a subpoena to OMB for these documents. Good government requires tracking how taxpayer dollars are spent, and OMB and this Administration is not exempt from being accountable to the American people."