Recovery Bottleneck Narrowing

Today is Friday the 13th. It has been nearly four weeks since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was signed into law, and nearly two months since President Obama was sworn in and his administration began officially asking state and local government agencies for lists of "shovel ready" public construction projects which could speed billions of dollars into the hands of contractors and construction tradespeople to help get the American economy back on its feet.

In spite of all the emphasis in the press and the city halls, county buildings, and state agencies around the country on the importance of getting this money flowing quickly, there are still 17 states and the District of Columbia which do not yet have websites linked to Recovery.gov for reporting on how this money is being spent. No one is trying to keep secrets as far as I can tell, it's just that these officials were not properly prepared for handling this much cash and information all at once. Seems like the purportedly "shovel ready" projects were not even "pencil ready" at the state and local government level. California, one of the largest, most populous, and financially neediest states, is on the list of 17 which are not even up and running in the IT department as of 7:00 a.m. California time this morning.

If you think the taxpayers who want to know where their money is being invested are frustrated by these facts, imagine how the contractors and construction workers who are depending on these projects for their continued livelihoods must feel at the snail's pace with which everything stimulus related is proceeding. If only the bureaucrats responsible for awarding these contracts and cutting these checks were as highly motivated as the Representatives and Senators who rammed the legislation through Congress at what can only be described as a breakneck pace for that deliberative body.

Recognizing the reality that the bureaucratic bottlenecks make it way too early to judge whether actually spending the first bolus of $787 billion will or will not work to stimulate the economy in any significant manner, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has backed off her advocacy of a second stimulus package of appropriations at this juncture. Just two days after enlisting House Appropriations Chairman David Obey and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor behind her comments that a second round of stimulus appropriations may be a good idea, Pelosi said yesterday at her weekly news conference that such legislation "is just not something that, right now, is in the cards."

Navigating Recovery.gov

The federal government's recovery.gov website is actually becoming functional for those who want a centralized, sort of searchable site for seeking out projects to bid on. Here's how to do it:

Open the Recovery.gov home page by typing Recovery.gov into your Google search box. When the home page opens you will see a block on the lower right portion of the page headed "State Progress and Resources." Click on that block. Doing this will open a page which has one blue link "Agency Recovery Sites," which will open a list of federal government agencies that already have their own sites listing projects they are building. The same page has a U. S. map. If your state is colored blue on the map, clicking on your state will take you directly to your state's own web site for Recovery Act projects. If your state is still tan, your state site is not yet up and running. I suggest checking back daily to see when it goes up, so you don't miss out on any of the bidding.

Along similar lines, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee just reported out a bill which would require establishment of a single federal website for announcing, applying for and processing all federal government grants. They are trying to eliminate all paper from the process and to put everything on line.

Monday Senators will have a chance to offer amendments to the omnibus appropriation bill passed this week by the House for fiscal 2009, which must be completed by March 6 or the government will run out of cash. Look for a conference committee to be convened mid week after the Senate markup. However, nobody expects the Senate to eliminate any of the 8,330 earmarks costing an estimated $7.7 billion from the legislation.

Finally, if you are in the D.C. area, protest marches expected Monday may spur the federal government to fund a project for converting all of the boilers in the D.C. power generating plant from coal to natural gas. This will provide a lot of jobs to local contractors and tradespeople.

Please use this information to help your construction business participate in the government funded recovery of the economy of our industry.

Earl Devaney To Head "RAT" Board

Deftly ducking any risk of another Senate confirmation embarrassment, President Obama today named Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney to head the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board ["RAT" Board] charged with overseeing the efficient and effective expenditure of the billions of dollars appropriated in the economic stimulus legislation. How much do we pay the guy who dreams up these acronyms - the RAT board to rat out waste and corruption?

Because Devaney was confirmed as Interior Inspector General by the Senate in 1999, no confirmation process will be required for this new post. Slick. Devaney, a former Secret Service agent, led investigations into the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, and party hearty misbehavior by officials in Interior's Minerals Management Service. Look for Devaney's hard hitting reports soon on Recovery.gov.