Upton, Stearns Comment on Resignation of DOE Loan Guarantee Chief

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 6, 2011	CONTACT: Press Office (202) 226-4972
Upton, Stearns Comment on Resignation of DOE Loan Guarantee Chief Jonathan Silver testified before Oversight Subcommittee on September 14                           WASHINGTON, DC – Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-FL) responded today to news that Jonathan Silver, Executive Director of the Department of Energy’s Loans Programs Office, is resigning. Silver, who was responsible for doling out $18 billion in stimulus loan guarantees, appeared before the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee on September 14, 2011, for a hearing on “Solyndra and the DOE Loan Guarantee Program.” Upton and Stearns made the following statement: “Mr. Silver’s resignation does not solve the problem. We are in the midst of the Solyndra investigation and just days removed from Mr. Silver’s mad rush to finalize the last $4.7 billion in loans before the statutory deadline. Just this past Monday, the President declared the loan guarantee program sound and said that it was to be expected that one company like Solyndra could fail. But today the President changed his tune, stating, ‘The nature of these programs are going to be ones in which, you know, for every success there may be one that does not work out as well.’ Does the Obama Administration now expect that half of these companies will fail? American taxpayers are already on the hook for the half billion dollar Solyndra bust - what other shoes does this Administration expect to drop?” Information related to Silver’s testimony before the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee on September 14, 2011, can be found HERE.