Administration Officials Come Under Fire During Solyndra Hearing

By Adrianna McGinley

Witnesses in the Solyndra investigation faced intense questioning by members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce during a hearing Wednesday.

Jonathan Silver, Executive Director of the Loans Programs Office for the Department of Energy, and Jeffrey Zients, Deputy Director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, testified before the Committee conducting the investigation into a $535 million loan awarded to Solyndra, Inc. under Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Last week, the company suspended business and announced bankruptcy, launching the investigation. 

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) in her opening remarks stated that the questions to be answered were whether the Bush and Obama administrations conducted sufficient due diligence before approving the loan, whether the Department of Energy sufficiently monitored the financial status of Solyndra after the loan had been disbursed, whether Solyndra made accurate representations of its financial prospects both before and after loan disbursement, and whether the government made the right decision in restructuring the loan when Solyndra’s financial standing deteriorated.

The hearing quickly sparked finger pointing as both sides closely questioned the timeline of the loan approval, attempting to determine attribution to either the Bush or Obama administration. Questions of political favoritism came in to play, as did questions of whether the witnesses were career civil service employees or political appointees.

Answers from witnesses often seemed unclear, leading Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) to say to Silver, “I really want you to stop throwing everybody else under the bus, I hear you throwing all your staff under the bus. I want to know, you’re in charge, you’ve handled loans of this size and now you’re saying its everybody else’s fault except you, but you’re in charge.”

Executives from Solyndra were scheduled to be at Wednesday’s hearing, but will instead be testifying next week.