Executives from solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, which received over a half a billion dollars in loan guarantees from the Obama administration before filing for bankruptcy last week, are in negotations with the House Energy and Commerce Committee to openly testify before Congress next week, according to Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., the chairman of the panel’s subcomittee on oversight and investigations.
The company’s president and chief executive, Brian Harrison, and W.G. Stover, Jr., its chief financial officer, were asked to testify as part of tomorrow’s committee hearing on the questionable loans, which have embroiled the Obama administration in what Stearns deemed a “full-blown scandal.” The company’s offices were raided by the FBI last week.
Stearns, speaking to bloggers at the Heritage Foundation, said the executives called the committee staff yesterday and asked whether they would be allowed to delay their testimony until next week. If they were granted the additional time, they said they’d agree not to exercise their Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions.
“We’re a little flexible if they’ll come next week and testify freely and openly and transparently,” Stearns said. “I can’t say for sure, but most likely they’ll come next week and I think it would be very worthwhile for them to speak transparently and without taking the Fifth.”
Stearns said that the committee has a subpeona and could still force them to appear tomorrow, but he said it would be a “positive step” if they would actually answer questions.
Witnesses for tomorrow’s hearing currently include Jeffrey Zients, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget and Jonathan Silver, executive director of the Department of Energy’s loans office.
