PANEL HAS BEEN SEEKING RECORDS FOR FOUR MONTHS TO DETERMINE IF TAXPAYER DOLLARS WERE PUT AT RISK

Washington, Jul 14 - The House Energy and Commerce Committee today authorized its first subpoena of this Congress after Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Chairman of the Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, asked the panel to vote to authorize the subpoena. Said Stearns, "Until this year, Congress has not looked into the Department of Energy's (DOE's) $11-billion loan guarantee program. After receiving $2.5 billion in stimulus funding, DOE approved a loan guarantee for Solyndra, Inc., and after finalizing the loan Solyndra experienced a series of setbacks forcing DOE to change the terms of the loan. In addition, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is required to review the loans to determine the threat to taxpayers and to approve them. The Committee wants to determine if OMB properly reviewed the loan guarantee to Solyndra and how it was approved."

The Committee has been seeking four specific categories of documents for four months, yet OMB still refuses to provide all of the documents. "What is troubling is that within the limited documents provided by OMB, the most important information was the credit ratings assigned to the Solyndra loan guarantee, which were redacted," noted Stearns, "In the 110th and 111th Congresses, when we were in the minority, we never opposed any subpoenas issued by this Committee. In addition, I recall an instance where Rep. Waxman (Henry Waxman, D-CA) issued a subpoena to OMB after only one month and threatened to schedule a contempt hearing after only three months. It has been clear to the Committee that OMB does not intend to voluntarily provide the requested documents, necessitating today's subpoena. The taxpayers deserve to know if OMB and DOE properly assessed the financial condition of this company before they put half a billion dollars of taxpayer money at risk."