Department of Energy Inspector General Gregory Friedman offered few new details about his office's investigation into Solyndra, repeatedly telling members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee this morning that his ongoing probe makes it improper to answer specific questions about the failed solar energy company.

Friedman's probe into Solyndra became public only after his investigators joined FBI officers in a raid on the company's California headquarters in mid-September. But since acknowledging his office's part in that raid, Friedman has been tight-lipped, even as Congress continues to hold high-profile hearings on Solyndra on a near-weekly basis.

Following this morning's testimony, Friedman declined to offer an estimated date of when his investigation might conclude.

"We go where the facts take us," he said. "I would not expect weeks. We'd go beyond that. That would be my guess."

During his testimony, Friedman repeatedly referred members of the subcommittee on regulatory affairs, stimulus oversight and government spending to a report his office put out in March about the DOE clean energy loan program under which Solyndra was awarded a $535 million loan guarantee.

At that time -- five months before Solyndra went bankrupt and seven months before the White House launched an independent review of DOE's loan portfolio -- Friedman recommended that DOE develop a much more robust system for how the agency evaluates risky loan investments. The report found that the loan guarantee program had not properly documented and could not demonstrate how it addressed risks before granting loan guarantees.

But even without any new insight into the Solyndra debacle, House Republicans were ready to write the epitaph on President Obama's stimulus-funded green jobs efforts at this morning's hearing and move right to the task of trying to recover as much unspent funding as possible before it slips out the door.

"The available evidence seems to indicate that programs put forth by this administration aimed at promoting green energy and green jobs have failed and should end," said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who chairs the committee's subpanel on stimulus oversight. "With an unemployment rate still over 9 percent and nearly $15 trillion accumulated in debt, the American people deserve more than to see their government going further into the red with programs that don't work."

Two recovery act-funded green job programs that Jordan is ready to ax are the Department of Energy's home weatherization program and the Department of Labor's green job training program.

Jordan pointed to DOE IG audits that showed that weatherization work was often of poor quality. A recent IG visit to some 17 weatherized homes showed that nine failed inspections. But while Jordan wants to end the program -- which received some $5 billion in recovery act funds -- Friedman was not ready to endorse that move. He called the program a "mixed bag" and said that plenty of success stories can be found among the more than half-million homes that have been weatherized with DOE funding.

The data presented by Department of Labor Assistant IG Elliot Lewis about the green jobs training program was even gloomier than Friedman's findings on the weatherization effort.

The Labor Department began its green jobs training initiative with the hopes of using $490 million to train 97,000 individuals for eventual placement into green collar jobs. But nearly three years after the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act was passed, 26,000 individuals have completed training and 8,000 have used that training to find long-term placement in the green job field. The IG reported that DOL has spent $163 million of the $490 million it had planned to devote to the effort.

Jordan asked Elliot if the remaining $327 million could still be recovered before it gets spent. Elliot responded that his agency was investigating that possibility but was not yet prepared to make that recommendation.

"How much more do you need [to spend] to say this isn't working?" Jordan asked.

For their part, committee Democrats said they were supportive of reviewing particular programs to ensure there is no waste, fraud or abuse. But they also cautioned against "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" when it comes to green job funding.

"If we are going to remain competitive in the global economy, we must be willing to make investments going forward," said committee ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). "If we are not willing to make long-term investments, we risk limiting our competitiveness in the years to come -- something we simply cannot afford."