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WASTEFUL GOVERNMENT SPENDING
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HON. DON YOUNG
of alaska
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Mr. YOUNG. Madam Speaker, I would like to take this time today to warn my fellow lawmakers that the passage of any infrastructure legislation must hold contractors and project sponsors who receive federal dollars accountable for their performance or risk another round of failed government projects, financed or bailed out at taxpayers' expense.
Too often, ventures financed by the federal government have failed to be completed or simply never worked and, in the end, it's the taxpayers who are typically the big losers.
I will be working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to make sure that language is included in any infrastructure legislation that ensures that previous projects utilizing major federal assistance, that have defaulted and gone bust, cannot be eligible to reapply and do the same thing again.
The now-famous Solyndra solar energy project--the first major alternative energy infrastructure project launched by the Obama Administration as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,--
cost taxpayers over $500 million, but the solar panel manufacturer went bankrupt within a few years leaving taxpayers on the hook for almost all of a $535 million loan guarantee.
Later in the Obama Administration, in what can only be described as Solyndra 2.0, the Department of Energy committed $737 million to the development of the Crescent Dunes solar energy project in Nevada, also in the form of loan guarantees. That project still doesn't produce electricity and taxpayers are out as much as $234 million of the outstanding DOE loan balance if not more. This is after the project received an additional $275 million in taxpayer money under Treasury's Section 1603 program in 2017.
Only in Washington, DC does this scenario make sense. It is crucial that any energy infrastructure projects funded going forward, especially now that Congress is considering a much broader definition of infrastructure, should build in the kind of oversight and accountability measures that will minimize the potential for more boondoggles.
If we fail to do this, taxpayers will once again be left holding the bag and we will have failed to do our duty in terms of overseeing the programs we support while protecting taxpayers.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 86
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