Browsing: stimulus

The president hasn’t yet signed the economic stimulus bill, but you can already get a glimpse of Recovery.gov, the Web site intended to track stimulus spending. There isn’t much content on the site yet, of course, but the one thing we find interesting is the timeline at the bottom. It sets out milestones for agencies — federal, state and local — to begin reporting on their stimulus spending. A few highlights: On May 3 (75 days from now), agencies release “performance plans” on how they’re using their stimulus dollars; On May 20, they begin reporting their competitive grants and contracts;…

The division of labor in Washington is interesting. Staffers on Capitol Hill must be relieved that the economic stimulus bill has passed through Congress; at federal agencies, though, the work is just beginning. (Today is a well-timed federal holiday — a bit of calm before the storm!) There’s an interesting article in the New York Times about state and local governments scrambling to compete for stimulus cash. This is, after all, the largest infrastructure investment in generations. Several states said they have dozens of projects ready to start within six months — including at least 5,000 transportation projects. All of this…

The Senate is expected to vote later Friday on the conference report on the $787 billion economic stimulus package, sending the bill to President Barack Obama in the next few days. Earlier Friday, the House voted 246-183 to approve the conference report for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which merged the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. No Republicans voted for the report, while seven Democrats voted against. When the House voted on the bill last week, 11 Democrats voted against it. The Senate is discussing the stimulus package now on the floor, though a…

The Energy Department is about to get the power to hire people much more quickly. The final version of the stimulus bill includes a provision that allows the department to “recruit and directly appoint highly qualified individuals into the competitive service” when there’s a severe shortage of candidates or a critical hiring need. Excepted service and Senior Executive Service positions will be excluded from Energy’s direct hire authority. But aside from that, Energy will have a wide berth to decide when it needs to directly hire employees, and for what positions. The stimulus bill can be downloaded from the House…

House and Republican leaders have ironed out differences in the different versions of the economic stimulus bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Wednesday afternoon. “The bills were really quite similar, and I’m please to announce that we’ve been able to bridge those differences. Like any negotiation, this involved give and take, and if you don’t mind my saying so, that’s an understatement,” he said during a press conference. The full details of the changes in the now $789 billion bill haven’t been released, but Reid was joined by the three Senate Republicans who crossed party lines to back the…

Senate Democratic leadership has announced who will be serving on the conference committee to iron out differences in the House and Senate versions of the stimulus bill. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont. Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii Finance Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Thad Cochran, R-Miss. Both Finance and Appropriations were heavily involved in the creation of the Senate version, with each committee holding markups on their portions. And for the House: Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey, D-Wis. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. Energy and…

The Senate approved its $838 billion stimulus bill by a vote of 61-37 at 12:45 p.m. Tuesday. Three Republicans voted for HR 1: Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Check Federal Times shortly for a full story about the bill, as well as a breakdown of spending projects allocated for federal agencies.

The Senate voted 61-36 Monday to invoke cloture on the Collins-Nelson amendment, setting up a vote Tuesday on the full $827 billion stimulus package. The cloture vote ends debate on the Collins-Nelson amendment, a compromise amendment that cut more than $120 billion from the stimulus package to ensure enough Republican votes for passage. The Monday cloture vote is a strong indicator of what Tuesday’s vote will look like. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the Senate will likely vote on the stimulus at noon Tuesday and will then vote on presidential nominees later in the afternoon. After Tuesday’s vote, the…

A group of Republican and Democratic senators trimmed nearly $100 billion from the economic stimulus package over the last few days. Most economists say the cuts are a bad idea, because the smaller the stimulus bill, the less stimulative its effect on the economy. (Think of driving up an icy hill: If you’re not going fast enough, you slide back down.) Federal managers might not like the cuts, either: The revised Senate stimulus plan eliminates billions of dollars that were allocated for federal agencies. One of the biggest cuts will hurt the General Services Administration. The House stimulus bill gives…

The Senate, in what feels like its 7,000 hour of voting on amendments to the stimulus bill, just approved requiring competitive bidding for federal contracts. The amendment, introduced by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., passed 97-0 Friday afternoon, a monumental show of support from both Republicans and Democrats who have been concerned about oversight of the stimulus. The amendment to the Senate version of the bill will require “all contracts, grants and cooperative agreements awarded under this act to be competitively bid.” Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., said such an amendment is critical to ensuring money is responsibly spent. The temptation to…