OMB To Require Detailed Stimulus Reporting

In testimony today before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, OMB Deputy Director Rob Nabors said guidelines to be issued tomorrow will require federal agencies charged with distributing $630 billion in contracts and grants appropriated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to report who is getting the money, including contractors and subcontractors. Nabors said Recovery.gov will post information, for example, about contractors receiving $40 billion in highway and transit construction projects. In his remarks, Nabors said "The administration believes this level of reporting strikes the appropriate balance between transparency for Recovery Act spending and the burden that reporting imposes on recipients."

Since it seems Nabors has not read my March 16, 2009 E-mail to the White House reminding the administration that construction contractors are already required to submit lien waivers identifying all subcontractors and material suppliers along with their monthly billings on every project in every state. So, I sent him another copy. If only someone from the construction industry were in Washington working on this.

Nabors did predict that $252 billion of the money will be spent before the end of July, 2010.

Small Business Lending Reporting Imposed

In another move designed to make easier credit available to small businesses, the Obama administration has announced that it will require the 21 largest banks benefitting from TARP funding to report monthly on their levels of small business lending, and all other banks getting TARP money to report on small business lending levels quarterly. The White House announcement also encouraged banks not needing TARP assistance to "make an extra effort" to increase small business lending. Let's hope the bankers are listening.