After heated debate, House lawmakers agree to make Solyndra memo public

After a heated debate, lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations agreed to make public a memo that outlines the legal basis for the Energy Department’s decision to restructure the $535 million Solyndra loan guarantee earlier this year.

Earlier Friday, Democrats on the panel blasted Republicans for not making the document public. Democrats argued that the memo would clarify the Energy Department’s thinking in restructuring the loan earlier this year.

{mosads}“We asked last week if the majority would object if we released this document so the public could understand DOE’s rationale,” Rep. Henry Waxman (Calif.), the top Democrat on the full Energy and Commerce Committee, said during a hearing Friday of the investigative subcommittee. “The majority objected. They did not want the public to see DOE’s explanation.”

After consultation with staff, lawmakers ultimately agreed later in the hearing to enter the memo into the public record. But Democrats and Republicans first spent about 30 minutes bickering about the details of the memo.

“I’ve never seen such a big fuss over such a small matter in this committee,” Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) said.

The six-page memo, dated Feb. 15, 2011, outlines the legal basis for the Energy Department’s decision to ensure that investors who provided additional funding to Solyndra would be repaid before the federal government if the company folded. The memo, which was written by an Energy Department lawyer, was provided to the committee as part of a broader document request and had not been released publicly until Friday.

Republicans have alleged that the Energy Department broke the law when it “subordinated” the taxpayer interest in the restructuring agreement.

Friday’s hearing featured testimony from Treasury Department officials, one of whom raised concerns about the Energy Department’s plans to restructure the loan.

Another Treasury Department official, Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets Mary J. Miller, wrote to a White House Office of Management and Budget official in August, stating that Treasury believed the “subordination” of the taxpayer interest in the restructuring agreement was illegal.