This week, President Obama signed the immense spending and tax measure known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law. Now it’s our job to tell you where that money’s going.

The Obama administration has promised records that are shovel-ready for digging by interested citizens, journalists and others. It has already set up a web site that promises “unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability” in allowing taxpayers to know how the billions are spent. The president even promises it in the YouTube video embedded in the site. Some are already calling it short of what’s needed - a community by community breakdown of stimulus spending. It’s not there, the administration says, because those decisions haven’t been made yet.

The link to the 407-page bill itself doesn’t have the word “Minnesota” anywhere in it, but I did find a reference to $375 million to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for energy and water development projects on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. The half-million-dollar limit for executive compensation for financial firms getting bailout money is the final chapter of the law.

ShovelWatch is a web site launched by three news organizations (ProPublica, The Takeaway, WNYC) to track the spending. A Washington advocacy group, OMB Watch, is also leading something called the Coalition for an Accountable Recovery that will push for openness and accountability as the money flows. Given that the White House intends to commit 75 percent of the money in the next three months, tracking this spending spree will be keep us journalists shoveling as fast as we can.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 9:04 pm and is filed under Government spends your money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.