Committee Strikes Accord With White House on Solyndra Interviews, White House Will Cooperate and Allow Key Solyndra Players to Talk

Press Release

The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations announced a key development this afternoon in its ongoing investigation of the $535 million loan guarantee to now-bankrupt Solyndra. Late this afternoon, the White House and OMB agreed to cooperate and allow the key staff to speak to committee investigators. The OMB personnel have already scheduled the meetings and the White House has pledged to make the relevant personnel available to committee investigators. As a result of this progress, the subcommittee has postponed a business meeting previously scheduled for 9:45a.m. on Friday, February 17, 2012, that would have considered a resolution authorizing the issuance of a subpoena to compel the testimony of five executive branch employees who were involved in the Solyndra loan guarantee.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns made the following statement:

"We are pleased that we will finally have a chance to talk to those administration officials who actually did the substantive work on the Solyndra loan guarantee. Speaking to these key players is critical to learning the lessons of Solyndra as we work to ensure taxpayers are never again paying the price for the administration's risky bets.

"This week will mark a year since we launched our investigation on the failed Solyndra loan. Over the last 12 months the White House has sadly put up every roadblock imaginable and engaged in needless delays. All that we have asked for since day one is the Obama administration's cooperation. We appreciate this willingness to comply, and we continue to call on the White House to finally allow the truth to come out and fully comply and turn over all internal Solyndra documents responsive to our subpoena. We owe it to taxpayers to end the delays and finally resolve the many important unanswered questions."

The five individuals the committee is seeking testimony from are:

* Kevin Carroll, Energy Branch Chief, OMB
* Kelly Colyar, Branch Chief, OMB
* Aditya Kumar, Deputy Assistant to the Vice President and Senior Advisor to then White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
* Fouad Saad, Program Examiner, OMB
* Heather Zichal, Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change

NOTE: Kumar recently resigned from the White House and is no longer employed by the federal government. The committee is still looking to speak to him.

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