Saturday, November 5, 2011

White House Rejects House's Solyndra Subpoena

The White House responded to a subpoena issued by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce  and the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation by sending a scathing letter back to the Congressional investigators on Friday. The letter stated that the White House will not cooperate with a subpoena requesting documents regarding the $535 million loan guarantee to the now-bankrupt solar panel company Solyndra.

Committee chairman Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich, blasted the White House response:

“We have been reasonable every step of the way in this investigation, and it is a shame that the Obama Administration and House Democrats continue to put up partisan roadblocks to hide the truth from taxpayers. Solyndra was a jobs program gone bad, and we must learn the lessons of Solyndra as we work to turn our economy around and put folks back to work. Our judicious and methodical work over the last eight months has garnered tens of thousands of pages of documents from DOE and OMB that have proven we are on the right track. Now, we need to know the White House’s role in the Solyndra debacle in order to learn the full truth about why taxpayers now find themselves a half billion dollars in the hole. The White House could have avoided the need for subpoena authorizations if they had simply chosen to cooperate. That would have been the route we preferred, and frankly, it would have been better for the White House to get the information out now, rather than continue to drag this out. Our request for documents is reasonable - we are not demanding the President’s blackberry messages as we are respectful of Executive Privilege. What is the West Wing trying to hide? We owe it to American taxpayers to find out.”

For the White House response written by Obama's counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, click here.

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