A spokesman for House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) today accused the panel's top Democrat of being "incredibly disingenuous" for accusing committee Republicans of abuse and intimidation in their ongoing probe of the Department of Energy's loan program.

Earlier this morning, panel ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said in a harshly worded letter that Issa broke committee rules and the chairman's own stated operating procedure when he issued a dozen subpoenas to current and former DOE employees and contractors last week without consulting minority staff (E&E Daily, Sept. 11).

Issa spokesman Frederick Hill said today that, in fact, two separate conversations took place with Democratic staffers in which they were given the heads-up that subpoenas were being considered. Hill said those consultations took place before the subpoenas were delivered.

Committee rules require consultation, "not the ranking member's agreement. The consultation was clearly met," Hill said.

Democratic staffers argued this morning that the subpoenas were signed on Sept. 5 but that they were not informed about them until Sept. 6, the day they were served. As such, Democrats argue that they were informed after the fact and never actually consulted.

In his letter, Cummings also criticized Issa for sending armed U.S. marshals to the Department of Energy to deliver subpoenas.

"Had you consulted me ... I would have strongly opposed sending four armed U.S. Marshals into the Department of Energy to physically serve the subpoenas," Cummings wrote. "There was absolutely no reason for this type of intimidation since the Department would have accepted the subpoenas by email, as it has done routinely in the past, including with our Committee."

Cummings also charged that Republican committee staff members tried to intimidate DOE employees with phone calls "threatening references to U.S. Marshals coming to their homes to serve subpoenas."

Hill countered that all those who were served last week were given the option by the committee to accept their subpoena over email. Five chose to do so; the rest, he said, did not respond to the committee's offer. As such, marshals were asked to serve the subpoenas.

The lack of response is "another example of the lack of cooperation the committee has received from DOE," Hill said.

Democratic staff said today that the option was given to the subpoenaed individuals at 7 p.m. the night before marshals showed up at their offices. They also note that while these types of offers typically go through agency counsel, Republicans chose to cut DOE's general counsel out of any negotiations and sent their offers directly to the DOE staffers.

Hill said the committee has been working for two months to seek the voluntary cooperation of DOE employees to turn over emails from their personal accounts that discussed official loan program business. Republicans have charged that under the Obama administration, DOE employees used the tactic to hide overtly political decisions from government record retention systems.

"Before the Obama administration took office, Oversight Committee Democrats actually investigated concerns about the use of nonofficial email accounts violating federal record keeping and transparency laws," Hill said. "Since Obama took office, however, they've taken an anything goes approach to such violations."

Issa's investigation of the loan program kicked into high gear after the bankruptcy filing in August 2011 of the Solyndra solar energy company, which had received more than half-a-billion dollars through the loan program. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has been investigating the circumstances surrounding the Solyndra loan for more than 18 months.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu has testified before both panels over the past year, but Hill said Issa has asked the secretary to come back again, though he did not specify when that hearing might take place.

Among those who were subpoenaed last week were Frances Nwachuku, the DOE official charged with managing the agency's loan guarantee portfolio; Brandon Hurlbut, Chu's chief of staff; and Morgan Wright, the director of strategic initiatives in DOE's Loan Programs Office.

Despite Cummings' protests, Hill said depositions continue to be scheduled for Hurlbut and Wright this week and next.

DOE spokesman Damien LaVera said today that the department is complying with Issa's requests and, as of this morning, has provided all of the documents the committee has subpoenaed from agency officials.

"In addition to voluntarily providing more than 1 million pages of documents to Congress, the Department has fully complied with the Chairman's requests and provided all of the documents the Committee requested from these Department officials prior to the Committee's baffling decision to issue subpoenas," LaVera said. "No matter how hard some in Congress are working to distort the record, the facts clearly demonstrate that decisions on loan applications were made on the merits after careful review by career officials and technical experts in the loan program."