House Republicans are pushing forward with their request for all internal White House communications related to the now-bankrupt solar firm Solyndra, including President Obama’s emails.
In a letter to White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler on Tuesday, top Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee argue that the White House should turn over internal emails and documents related to the $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra. They rejected arguments from the White House that it has already turned over hundreds of documents, and said efforts by other administrative agencies are not enough.
“The fact that other agencies are in the process of attempting to comply with our request for documents does not excuse the White House from producing its own responsive documents,” the letter from committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Oversight and Investigations subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) said.
“Our request to the White House is not duplicative of our requests to other executive-branch agencies.”
The White House late last week denied the request by Republicans on the committee, noting that the White House Office of Management and Budget, the Treasury Department and the Energy Department have provided more than 70,000 pages of documents in recent months.
The administration, in a letter from White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, also said that more than 900 pages of communications between the White House and Solyndra have also been released.
The documents that have been provided by the administration “should satisfy the committee’s stated objective,” Ruemmler said in the letter.
“Your most recent request for internal White House communications from the first day of the current administration to the present implicates longstanding and institutional executive-branch confidentiality interests,” the letter says.
But Upton and Stearns, in their new letter to Ruemmler this week, push back against her reasons for keeping the documents from the committee.
“In your letter you make a vague reference to your concerns regarding the confidentiality of executive-branch documents. However, unless the president actually asserts a valid claim of executive privilege, the committee is entitled to the documents responsive to its request,” the lawmakers’ Oct. 18 letter states.
Despite the escalating fight over the internal communications, it remains unclear whether the Republicans would seek to subpoena the documents if they’re not turned over.
“We haven’t thought that far ahead yet,” Upton said in a brief interview Wednesday. “We will wait and see what happens,” he told The Hill in the Capitol.
The lawmakers initially requested the White House communications on Oct. 5.
Republicans on the panel are investigating the administration’s decision in 2009 to finalize a $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra, the California solar company that filed for bankruptcy in early September.
Republicans have alleged that politics played a role in the approval of the loan guarantee and the decision to restructure the agreement in February.
The White House strongly denies those allegations.
The investigation has not uncovered evidence of political favoritism, but emails show that the White House pressed administration officials to make a swift decision on helping Solyndra. They also show that there was disagreement within the administration on the wisdom of approving the loan guarantee.
— Ben Geman contributed to this report
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/188509-republicans-demand-obamas-emails-on-solyndra#.TqVwSwsbvyQ.blogger
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