Don't expect Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to be full of praise when they shine their oversight spotlight Thursday on the Department of Energy's spending of stimulus funds.
The hearing comes as several DOE American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-funded projects continue to be the subject of harsh criticism on Capitol Hill. GOP leaders believe those concerns justify the deep cuts they want to make to the agency's budget even as the White House has pushed for major new energy investments.
Republicans have been particularly concerned with DOE's loan guarantee program. The effort, which backs investments for renewable energy projects that might otherwise not get private funding, got billions in additional dollars through the stimulus program. But Republicans believe that poor management of the program has led to waste.
DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman added fuel to that fire earlier this month when he slammed the loan guarantee program for poor record keeping in a report to Secretary Steven Chu.
"In our opinion, the readily available record supporting the due diligence process was not sufficiently organized and maintained," Friedman wrote. "Further, the many separate, inconsistent and ineffective maintenance and archiving practices we observed during our review of thousands of documents on separate servers, individual computers and retrieved from contractor files, demonstrated the importance of adopting a structured and disciplined approach to records management."
Another recent DOE IG investigation studied the use of stimulus funds for infrastructure upgrades in DOE's Office of Science. That effort resulted in the agency canceling a $2.6 million project after Friedman's office determined it was not immediately necessary.
Republicans have asked Friedman to testify at Thursday's hearing along with Franklin Rusco, director of natural resources and environment at the Government Accountability Office, which has also been keeping tabs on agency stimulus spending.
A trio of DOE officials will also be questioned by the panel including Chief Financial Officer Steve Isakowitz, Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Ines Triay and CEO for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Steve Chalk.
Schedule: The hearing is Thursday, March 17, at 1:30 p.m. in 2322 Rayburn.
Witnesses: DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman; DOE Chief Financial Officer Steve Isakowitz; Franklin Rusco, director of natural resources and environment at the Government Accountability Office; DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Ines Triay; and DOE CEO for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Steve Chalk.
