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White House counsel says GOP’s subpoena is ‘unprecedented’
The White House blasted House Republicans Friday for subpoenaing internal documents related to the $535 million Solyndra loan guarantee, calling the move “unprecedented and unnecessary.”
White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler said the subpoena is an effort by Republicans to score political points in their ongoing investigation into the loan guarantee to the failed California solar panel-maker.
Solyndra filed for bankruptcy in early September about two years after receiving a $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee. The incident has set off a firestorm in Washington, with Republicans raising questions about President Obama’s green energy agenda.
Last month, Ruemmler denied Republicans’ initial request for all internal White House Solyndra documents. But, at a meeting with Republicans and Democrats on the committee this week, Ruemmler offered to provide select Solyndra documents if lawmakers agreed to narrow their request.
But committee Republicans nonetheless pressed forward with the subpoena, voting Thursday along party lines to compel the White House to provide the documents. The committee delivered separate subpoenas to White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley and Bruce Reed, Vice President Biden’s chief of staff, Thursday night.
“I am disappointed and troubled that, despite our offer to work with the committee on a more focused request that balances the important interests of both the Congress and the Executive Branch, the Committee decided to move forward with an overbroad subpoena that is unprecedented and unnecessary,” Ruemmler said.
Committee Republicans have not offered adequate justification for the breadth of their petition, nor have they explained why they will not accept the White House’s proposal to narrow their document request, Ruemmler said.
“The Committee has rejected that approach without any justification other than a general curiosity about internal White House communications,” Ruemmler said. “Such curiosity is not a sufficient justification for encroaching on longstanding and important Executive Branch confidentiality interests, particularly when none of the more than 85,000 pages of documents produced to date evidence any favoritism to political supporters or wrongdoing by the White House.”
The White House, its Office of Management and Budget, the Treasury Department and the Energy Department have provided more than 80,000 pages of documents to Republicans in recent months. The documents provided include communications between the White House and Solyndra.
The investigation has not found evidence of political favoritism.
But emails released by Republicans 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.
The White House argues that the subpoena is overly broad and will pose a massive logistical hurdle for staff.
“Responding to such an expansive request would require the devotion of substantial resources to gather and review many documents that are of no legitimate oversight interest — which is itself an unreasonable burden on the President’s ability to meet his constitutional duties,” Ruemmler said in the letter.
In their subpoena, Republicans gave the White House until Nov. 10 to respond to their documents request.
"We hope to see good-faith efforts of compliance by the White House before the Nov. 10 deadline," a GOP committee aide said.
Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) defended the subpoena Friday.
“We have been reasonable every step of the way in this investigation, and it is a shame that the Obama Administration and House Democrats continue to put up partisan roadblocks to hide the truth from taxpayers,” Upton said in a statement.
This story was updated at 5:27 p.m.
