Cliff Stearns Takes Aim at Obama Administration on Solyndra Loan

Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns, the chairman of the U.S. House subcommittee on oversight and investigations under the umbrella of the full Energy and Commerce Committee, will have the Obama administration in his line of fire on Wednesday -- namely the Energy Department sending $535 million in federal funds to Solyndra, a California-based green energy company that declared bankruptcy last month.

Although numerous red flags indicated that Solyndra was financially troubled and unviable in the global market, the administration went ahead and committed over half-a-billion dollars in taxpayer funds to this company that went bankrupt, said Stearns on Tuesday. Furthermore, in restructuring the loan, the administration allowed the private investors to have the first out in case of Solyndras collapse. Then there is the FBI raid raising the likelihood of criminal activity. I want to find out what happened to this money and who is responsible for putting these dollars at risk.

Stearns will chair a committee meeting on Wednesday morning and will take testimony from Jeffrey Zients, the deputy director of the federal Office of Management and Budget and fromJonathan Silver, the executive director of the loans programs office in the Department of Energy.