ADMINISTRATION’S CONTINUED STALLING FORCES THIS STEP TO ADVANCE INVESTIGATION

WASHINGTON, NOV. 4, 2011 – “Last night, the White House and the Office of Vice President were served with a subpoena for documents relating to the Solyndra loan guarantee,” said Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.  “Unfortunately, we had to take this step after the White House has continued to slow walk the production of documents necessary for this investigation by only releasing selected documents and records.”

The investigation into the loan guarantee has uncovered that numerous red flags were ignored in providing the funds to Solyndra, that taxpayers were subordinated to two private hedge firms in violation of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and that political influence contaminated the loan guarantee process.

In explaining the subpoena, Stearns added, “This is an effort to get crucial documents to understand the role of the White House in the loan guarantee. We asked for all documents pertaining to communications with investors, on finalizing the loan guarantee, the financial condition of Solyndra, and the loan’s restructuring. We have sent three letters to the White House seeking records, and this is the same information we requested in the October 5^th letter. The subpoena provides until November 10^th for the White House to share with us a schedule for producing the documents.  I believe that the President owes it to the American people to explain in detail what happened to their tax money.  In addition, as we work to promote job creation in our troubled economy, the failure of Solyndra offers important lessons to be learned.”