WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- A memo on the restructuring of a $535 million federal loan to a California solar energy company went before a House investigating subcommittee Friday.
During the hearing, Democrats on the investigative panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee lambasted Republicans and accused them of trying to keep the Energy Department memo from public view.
"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 D-Calif., the top Democrat on the committee, said. "The majority objected. They did not want the public to see DOE's explanation."
The six-page memo, written Feb. 15 by Energy Department Loan Programs Office Chief Counsel Susan Richardson details the legal footing for the Energy Department's conclusion they were in the right to guarantee investors who ponied up additional funding to Solyndra would be paid back before taxpayers if the company folded -- which it did, The Hill reported.
"In light of that determination, we conclude that the proposed subordination of the borrower's obligations to DOE is consistent with both the text and the purposes of [the law]," the memo says.
Treasury official Mary J. Miller allegedly wrote to a counterpart in the White House Office of Management and Budget in August saying the Treasury Department held the "subordination" of the taxpayer interest in the restructuring agreement was illegal.
