Today in Washington, D.C. - Sept. 23, 2010:
The House stayed until after midnight and early this morning, the House approved by a 219-203 vote a GOP-authored short-term funding measure designed to keep the government running through Nov. 18. The vote was very close with 213 Republicans and 6 Democrats supported the plan and 179 Democrats and 24 Republicans opposing the bill. The bill would have funded the federal agencies funded through Nov. 18th. The primary controversy was that Democrats opposed cutting funding from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loans program that provides government-subsidized financing to automakers in order to offset needed disaster relief funding that was being provided to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Democrats in the Senate immediately vowed to reject the bill. This morning, the Senate is voted 59-36 to table a motion to concur with the House-passed continuing resolution (CR), which would fund the government through Nov. 18th. The current fiscal year, FY 2011, ends September 30th.
Senate Democrats have objected to House Republicans paying for billions in critical disaster relief funds by cutting green energy loan programs, including $100 million from the program that approved the Solyndra loan. Remember the Obama Administration - Solundra scandal!
After the vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) offered an amendment to the House bill, stripping the offsets for disaster funding. In-otehr-words, he offered no offsetting reductions in spending and supported more funding of scandal ridden programs. He filed cloture and set a vote for Monday evening. More abuse of Americans by Senator Harry Reid.
Yesterday, the Senate voted 70-27 to pass H.R. 2832, the Generalized System of Preferences Act, a trade promotion bill that was amended to reauthorize the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program. A substitute amendment from Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) containing the TAA reauthorization language was approved by a vote of 69-28.
Prior to the vote on the Casey amendment, the Senate rejected 3 GOP amendments to the bill. The first, from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), would have narrowed TAA eligibility only to workers impacted by free trade agreements. The second, from Sen. John Thune (R-SD), would have required a report on the economic impact of trade deals that have been agreed to but not approved by Congress. And the third, from Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), would have directed the president to sell F-16C & D fighters to Taiwan to support that nation.
As even more troubling reports surface about failed solar panel maker Solyndra, Politico reports today, “Solyndra executives repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment this morning as House lawmakers pressed them to answer questions about the company’s financial collapse and any hopes of repaying their $535 million federal loan guarantee. ‘While I hope to have an opportunity to assist this committee in the future, on the advice of my attorney, I must respectfully decline to answer any questions,’ Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison told Energy and Commerce oversight subpanel Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who opened the questioning. CFO Brian Stover gave a similar response.”
Meanwhile, The New York Times writes today, “The government’s backing of Solyndra, which could cost taxpayers more than a half-billion dollars, came as the politically well-connected business began an extensive lobbying campaign that appears to have blinded government officials to the company’s financial condition and the risks of the investment, according to a review of government documents and interviews with administration officials and industry analysts. . . . Its lobbyists corresponded frequently and met at least three times with an aide to a top White House official, Valerie B. Jarrett, to push for loans, tax breaks and other government assistance. . . . Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill question whether the firm’s executives may have engaged in a cover-up of their precarious financial condition, allegations the company denies. But industry analysts and government auditors fault the Obama administration for failing to properly evaluate the business proposals or take note of troubling signs already evident in the solar energy marketplace. . . . The Energy Department’s senior staff has acknowledged in interviews the intense pressure from top Obama administration officials to rush stimulus spending out the door.”
And earlier this week, The Washington Post reported, “Former employees of Solyndra, the shuttered solar company that exhausted half a billion dollars of taxpayer money, said they saw questionable spending by management almost as soon as a federal agency approved a $535 million government-backed loan for the start-up. A new factory built with public money boasted a gleaming conference room with glass walls that, with the flip of a switch, turned a smoky gray to conceal the room’s occupants. Hastily purchased state-of-the-art equipment ended up being sold for pennies on the dollar, still in its plastic wrap, employees said. As the $344 million factory went up just down the road from the company’s leased plant in Fremont, Calif., workers watched as pallets of unsold solar panels stacked up in storage. Many wondered: Was the factory needed? ‘After we got the loan guarantee, they were just spending money left and right,’ said former Solyndra engineer Lindsey Eastburn. ‘Because we were doing well, nobody cared. Because of that infusion of money, it made people sloppy.’”
Given all these revelations about Solyndra, it’s hard to imagine that anyone would be eager to continue funding the federal loan program that gave money to the now-bankrupt company without some serious deliberation. Yet Democrats today voted down a House-passed bill to fund the government and provide critical disaster relief money for FEMA because they didn’t want money taken from this green energy loan program to pay for disaster funds.
So after a week of demanding action on disaster aid through repeated press conferences and floor speeches, Democrats today delayed that aid because they didn’t want it paid for and preferred to protect wasteful green energy loans.
As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell explained, “Here’s the holdup: because of some of the horrible weather we’ve had over the past several weeks, we’ve all agreed to add emergency funds that we didn’t originally plan in this bill, and Republicans identified a couple of cuts to make sure we don’t make the deficit any bigger than it already is, including an offset that Leader Pelosi has used in the past. The rest is from a cut to a loan guarantee program that gave us the Solyndra scandal. Now I think we can all agree that this program should be put on hold until we get more answers, but our friends on the other side don’t like the idea; they’d rather just add these funds to the deficit.”
Note this story: ABC: Obama Officials Sat In On Solyndra Meetings
Tags: US House, US Senate, Washington, D.C., Continuing Resolution, disaster relief, green energy scandals, auto companies, Solyndra, Solyndra scandal, Democrats, deficit spending To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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