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Stearns says GOP leadership pledges September vote on post-Solyndra bill
Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) said he has secured a commitment from House GOP leadership to bring legislation to the floor in September that’s designed to curtail the Energy Department’s embattled loan guarantee program for clean-energy projects.
Stearns is a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which approved the GOP’s “No More Solyndras” bill Wednesday in a 29-19 vote. Three Democrats supported the measure, with two Republicans opposed.
The Florida Republican told E2-Wire Wednesday that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) office has pledged to bring up the bill next month. A spokesman for Cantor said the measure hasn't been scheduled yet, but is "definitely under consideration."
The bill, sponsored by Stearns and committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), won’t advance in the Senate. But bringing it to the House floor would create another election-season platform for GOP political attacks against White House energy policies.
The bill is named after the California solar panel manufacturer that collapsed last year after receiving a $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee in 2009. Click here and here for more on the bill.
The bill would prevent loan guarantees for any applications submitted after the end of 2011, and would place new restrictions on application reviews and existing loans.
The loan guarantee program was authorized in a bipartisan 2005 energy law, and expanded through a temporary addition to the program in President Obama’s 2009 stimulus law.
—This post was updated at 3:53 p.m. and 4:04 p.m.
