WASHINGTON, DC – House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement today applauding House passage of the No More Solyndras Act (H.R. 6213):

“With the economy drowning in $16 trillion of red ink, and American families struggling to make ends meet, the Obama administration’s politically-motivated decision to pour $535 million dollars into a pet project it knew was a precarious bet from the beginning is a slap in the face to every American taxpayer. 

“Thanks to a dogged investigation by the Energy & Commerce Committee, in the year since Solyndra failed we have learned how the Obama administration used American taxpayers as a personal piggy bank to fund a risky investment that has amounted to nothing more than a half-billion dollar art project.  We have learned that the Obama administration ignored the warnings of its own Office of Management & Budget and doubled-down on the Solyndra loan guarantee to prop up a failing company it had made a focal point of its ‘stimulus’ PR campaign.  And we have learned that the interests of the American people were unlawfully subordinated to those of the company’s financial backers, who still stand to walk away with millions in tax breaks while Solyndra’s employees are left standing in the unemployment line. 

“The No More Solyndras Act passed by the House today uses the committee’s findings to ensure that taxpayers are no longer left holding the bag for the administration’s reckless investments.  The bill winds down the Department of Energy’s Title 17 loan guarantee program and increases transparency and congressional oversight of existing applications.  It also provides new taxpayer protections for pending applications, and reaffirms the precedence of taxpayers’ interests over those of private investors.

“The Obama administration may still regard the loan program that brought us Solyndra as an ‘enormous success,’ but the American people know better.  President Obama’s ‘stimulus’ scheme has failed, and it is far past time for a new approach that will help the economy create jobs.  House Republicans have offered a new approach in the Plan for America’s Job Creators, and passed more than 30 bills under that plan that will help put Americans back to work.  President Obama ought to call on Senate Democrats to stop blocking them so they can be enacted immediately.”