• The House Ways and Means Committee released details today about the tax provisions falling under their jurisdiction in the stimulus bill. Tax cuts in the bill total about $275 billion and include Obama’s “Making Work Pay Credit” for the middle class, refundable higher education tax credits, first-time home-buyer credits, renewable energy incentives and a smattering of tax cuts for businesses. The Committee will begin work on this section of the bill next week.
  
  

• OMB Watch looks at the tax provisions from a stimulus perspective (how quickly and effectively they will put money into the economy, where it will be spent), and gives us the good, the bad, and the ugly.
  
  

• Republican Minority Leader John Boehner (OH) reacts to the draft legislation today: “The plan released this morning by congressional Democrats was developed with no Republican input and appears to be grounded in the flawed notion that we can simply borrow and spend our way back to prosperity.” He also points out some items from the bill he finds particularly egregious – “600 million for new cars for the federal government,” ”$1 billion “to minimize undercounting of minority groups” in the 2010 census,” etc.
  
  

• At an afternoon press conference, David Obey (D-WI), the House Appropriations chairman who has been a key player in assembling the stimulus bill, tried to lower expectations. “You have to look at this bill not as a salvation for the economy by any means,” he said. “It’s simply the largest effort by any legislative body on the planet to try to take action to prevent economic catastrophe.”
  
  

• In case you haven’t seen an outline of the spending items in the bill, here it is from Open Left.
  
  

• Free Press is pleased that the stimulus includes $6 billion for broadband deployment to rural areas, but they are worried that it will end up being a giveaway to the big telco companies. They want Congress to attach public service conditions to the money. “We urge that these dollars be tied to clear public service principles and concrete administrative accountability,” they write in a letter to David Obey. “Broadband as economic recovery should be ‘build-out,’ not ‘bail-out.’”
  
  

• Congress Daily ($):

Lawmakers working to spur the adoption of electronic medical records should not rush the process, a key Senate Democrat said today. As she chaired a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on health IT, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said that she will work with colleagues and President-elect Obama to craft a sound bill but cautioned against moving too quickly. “I’ve seen where we’ve … thrown a lot of money at stuff, and ended up with a boondoggle,” said Mikulski, who chairs the Senate Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Subcommittee as well as the HELP Aging Subcommittee. “We can’t afford to waste time on a fool’s journey.” Mikulski predicted an Appropriations Committee markup of the stimulus bill would occur before February, but after the hearing she declined to say whether the Senate version would contain the $20 billion for health IT that House Democrats included in the $825 billion stimulus package they unveiled today.

This strikes me as an important point about stimulus spending in general. In order for the spending to provide a stimulus affect, it needs to get into the economy as quickly as possible. But moving too quickly on some of the stuff in the House’s bill (like adopting electronic medial records) could jeopardize how well it is executed and how effective it is in the long run.

• And for the sake of putting all this stuff together in one place, here again are links to the bill text released by the House Appropriations Committee today and a summary of the bill (both .pdfs).

Anything to add?

The website picture above – Recovery.gov – will soon be transformed into a database for information on new spending originating from the $825 billion economic stimulus package. This part of Congress’s effort to bring “a historic level of transparency, oversight and accountability” to the stimulus so that “taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and Americans can see results for their investment,” as stated in the draft summary. Below is the mandate to build the site contained in the House’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (.pdf):

SEC. 1226. RECOVERY.GOV.

(a) REQUIREMENT TO ESTABLISH WEBSITE.— The Board shall establish and maintain a website on the Internet to be named Recovery.gov, to foster greater accountability and transparency in the use of funds made avail1able in this Act.

(b) PURPOSE.—Recovery.gov shall be a portal or gateway to key information related to this Act and provide a window to other Government websites with related information.

(c) MATTERS COVERED.—In establishing the website Recovery.gov, the Board shall ensure the following:

(1) The website shall provide materials explaining what this Act means for citizens. The materials shall be easy to understand and regularly updated.
(2) The website shall provide accountability information, including a database of findings from audits, inspectors general, and the Government Accountability Office.
(3) The website shall provide data on relevant economic, financial, grant, and contract information in user-friendly visual presentations to enhance public awareness of the use funds made available in this Act.
(4) The website shall provide detailed data on contracts awarded by the Government for purposes of carrying out this Act, including information about the competitiveness of the contracting process, noti1fication of solicitations for contracts to be awarded, and information about the process that was used for the award of contracts.
(5) The website shall include printable reports on funds made available in this Act obligated by month to each State and congressional district.
(6) The website shall provide a means for the public to give feedback on the performance of contracts awarded for purposes of carrying out this Act.
(7) The website shall be enhanced and updated as necessary to carry out the purposes of this subtitle.

And here are some more specifics from the bill text on exactly what information is going to have to be posted:

(1) INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT FUNDING.—

With respect to funds made available under this Act for infrastructure investments to Federal, State, or local government agencies, the following requirements apply:

(A) Each such agency shall notify the public of funds obligated to particular infrastructure investments by posting the notification on the website Recovery.gov.
(B) The notification required by subparagraph (A) shall include the following:

(i) A description of the infrastructure investment funded.
(ii) The purpose of the infrastructure investment.
(iii) The total cost of the infrastructure investment.
(iv) The rationale of the agency for funding the infrastructure investment with funds made available under this Act.
(v) The name of the person to contact at the agency if there are concerns with the infrastructure investment and, with respect to Federal agencies, an email address for the Federal official in the agency whom the public can contact.
(vi) In the case of State or local agencies, a certification from the Governor, mayor, or other chief executive, as appropriate, that the infrastructure investment has received the full review and vetting required by law and that the chief executive accepts responsibility that the infrastructure investment is an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars. A State or local agency may not receive infrastructure investment funding from funds made available in this Act unless this certification is made.

(2) OPERATIONAL FUNDING.—

With respect to funds made available under this Act in the form of grants for operational purposes to State or local government agencies or other organizations, the agency or organization shall publish on the website Recoery.gov a description of the intended use of the funds, including the number of jobs sustained or created.

(c) AVAILABILITY ON INTERNET OF CONTRACTS AND GRANTS.—Each contract awarded or grant issued using funds made available in this Act shall be posted on the Internet and linked to the website Recovery.gov. Proprietary data that is required to be kept confidential under applicable Federal or State law or regulation shall be redacted before posting.

UPDATE: And here is a pdf file of the full bill text. $825 billion in 258 pages.

New York Times:

House Democrats on Thursday unveiled an $825 billion economic recovery package, an expansive combination of spending and tax cuts that aims to put millions of unemployed Americans back to work and halt what is widely believed to be the nation’s worst recession since the Depression.

The package, developed by Congressional Democrats in partnership with President-elect Barack Obama, includes huge increases in federal spending on education, aid to states for Medicaid costs, temporary increases in unemployment benefits and a vast array of public works projects to create jobs.

The Senate is developing a version of the recovery package and intense haggling and fierce lobbying are expected over the next few weeks, not just between Democrats and Republicans but between the new administration and Congress, as lawmakers push to pass the stimulus bill by mid-February.

But the House version, introduced on Thursday morning by the Appropriations Committee chairman, Representative David Obey, Democrat of Wisconsin, contains the broad parameters that are expected to remain in the final product — slightly more than 60 percent in new spending and just under 40 percent on tax cuts.

The full text of the legislation hasn’t been released yet, but you can get more detailed information, including a break down of all the spending items, from the House Appropriations Committee’s executive summary (.pdf). The summary claims that the bill includes an unprecedented level of transparency, oversight and accountability. That’s the kind of thing we’ll need the text to verify, but these items from the summary sound like they could be pretty good:

• How funds are spent, all announcements of contract and grant competitions and awards, and formula grant allocations must be posted on a special website created by the President. Program managers will also be listed so the public knows who to hold accountable.

• Public notification of funding must include a description of the investment funded, the purpose, the total cost and why the activity should be funded with recovery dollars. Governors, mayors or others making funding decisions must personally certify that the investment has been fully vetted and is an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars. This will also be placed on the recovery website.

Today, a new project aimed at opening up hidden power structures in Washington and beyond – LittleSis – is making its initial foray into the wilds of the internet. Like an OpenCongress for unaccountable officials or, as the team behind LittleSis calls it, “an involuntary facebook of powerful Americans,” the site profiles CEOs, presidential cabinet members, lobbyists, financiers etc., and charts overlaps in their backgrounds so we can start to see the connections that have built the powers that be.

The people profiled on LittleSis make some of the most important decisions affecting our lives; LittleSis helps us turn a critical eye to let them know that we are watching.

Little Sis relies on the public to contribute information about powerful people. Anyone can sign up to become an analyst and start adding information to help fill out the puzzle. You may not be able to reveal new power structures on your own, but when combined with everyone else’s work, your bit of research could be the crucial link to revealing an important relationship that wouldn’t be known otherwise.

Profiles on LittleSis collect information on government contracts, board memberships, education, business positions, family ties and campaign contributions to find “interlocks” between powerful people. So, for example, for Susan Rice, Barack Obama’s choice for US ambassador to the UN, you can see a list of people who with positions in the same organizations (James Steinberg and Jeffrey Bader top the list) and people who have given money to same causes (David Cohen and John Alchin of Comcast have the most similar donation records). You can also look at it from an organizational perspective. For example, here’s a list of the organizations that have the most overlapping membership with the transition’s National Security Policy Working Group. Topping that list is the Center for a New American Security, a D.C. think-tank that has significant overlap with both ConocoPhillips and Lockheed Martin. I’m sure you can see how this could get interesting…

The site is still in beta, so there are some limitations, bugs and holes in the data. It’s going to be really interesting to watch this site grow – the development team is already talking about opening up its data for people to reuse, designing network maps for visualizing relationships and a browser plugin for highlighting hidden connections between names in the news. But the fist step, of course, is for all of us to go in and flesh out the profiles. Let’s get to it.

Chris Bowers at Open Left posted this video of freshman Democrat Rep. Alan Grayson at yesterday’s Financial Services Committee hearing grilling Fed Vice-Chairman Donald Kohn on the lack of transparency in the financial bailout:

The related legislation here, as I’ve been writing about a lot this week, is the TARP Reform and Accountability Act. The bill is designed to require more accountability and transparency in how the second $350 billion tranche of the TARP money is spent. Rep. Barney Frank, the bill’s sponsor, is now backing away from passing his own bill, saying that he is willing to accept the Obama administration’s word that they will act as if it were the law.

Over at the Sunlight Foundation blog, Paul Blumenthal has assembled this useful list of all the government transparency and ethics legislation that has been introduced so far in the 111th Congress:

H.R.36 Presidential Library Donation Reform Act of 2009

H.R.35 Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2009

H.R.311 To cap discretionary spending, eliminate wasteful and duplicative agencies, reform entitlement programs, and reform the congressional earmark process.

H.R.420 To prohibit the use of Federal funds for a project or program named for an individual then serving as a Member, Delegate, Resident Commissioner, or Senator of the United States Congress.

H.Res.40 Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to require each standing committee to hold periodic hearings on the topic of waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement in Government programs which that committee may authorize, and for other purposes.

S.49 A bill to help Federal prosecutors and investigators combat public corruption by strengthening and clarifying the law.

S.103 A bill to require disclosure and payment of noncommercial air travel in the Senate.

S.104 A bill to prohibit authorized committees and leadership PACs from employing the spouse or immediate family members of any candidate or Federal office holder connected to the committee.

S.105 A bill to amend the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 to establish criminal penalties for knowingly and willfully falsifying or failing to file or report certain information required to be reported under that Act.

S.133 A bill to prohibit any recipient of emergency Federal economic assistance from using such funds for lobbying expenditures or political contributions, to improve transparency, enhance accountability, encourage responsible corporate governance, and for other purposes.

S.162 Fiscal Discipline, Earmark Reform and Accountability Act

As always, you can use your “My OpenCongress” account (login or register) to track these bills and get alerted to congressional actions and related news and blog coverage from around the internet.

Mike Lillis at the Washington Independent reports on worries that the stricter executive compensation limits in Rep. Barney Frank’s TARP accountability bill are still full of loopholes:

The heads of bailed-out banks could still receive nearly unlimited pay under a new Democratic proposal to rein in executive compensation for firms participating in the taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailout, according to at least one House Democrat, who hopes to add tighter restrictions this week.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Cal.) predicts that new legislation aiming to limit executive pay for firms helped by the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) leaves loopholes allowing bank CEOs to reap millions of dollars even as taxpayers spend hundreds of millions to rescue their companies. Sherman said the new proposal takes steps to curb executive bonuses, but places no limit on “$1 million-per-month salaries” and other lavish perks, leaving corporations with broad freedom to pay their CEOs whatever they choose.

“My fear is that the bill will prohibit bonuses but will be a little unclear about stock options,” Sherman said on the House floor Friday. “That it will prohibit leasing the corporate jets, but will allow the companies to charter the corporate jets; and that it will put limits on bonuses but no limits on salaries.”

You can bet that if the loopholes are in the legislation, they’ll be in any informal agreement between Obama and Frank as well.

This morning, I wrote about a bill from Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) designed to improve accountability of the remaining $350 billion of the financial bailout program known as TARP. Frank’s bill would require bailed out firms to report how they have spent the taxpayer money,strengthen restrictions on executive pay, require the Treasury to use some of the money for foreclosure prevention, and much more.

But now Barney Frank seems to be backing away from passing his bill and, instead, is trusting that President-elect Obama will follow it even though it isn’t required by law:

Frank introduced legislation at the end of last week that would have tied a number of strings to the second $350 billion in financial-industry bailout funds. But on Monday, he told fellow Democrats that he wouldn’t push for passage of his bill if President-elect Obama would give “his word” that he would implement major portions of his legislation, according to a House Democratic aide.

The agreement would give Obama freedom to spend the TARP funds – confined by whatever promises he makes to Congress – and side-steps what could be a difficult fight in both the Senate and the House.

I’m interested to hear what people think about this. I mean, that’s a lot of trust to instill in an administration that hasn’t even come into power yet. Apparently this is Frank’s reasoning:

Reaching an agreement with Obama, rather than forcing his hand with legislation, could circumvent a balance-of-powers conundrum Frank laid out on Friday. “The problem that we have is that in the legislative branch, it’s easier to prevent people from doing bad things than make them do good things,” he said. By coming to terms, he could get assurance that Obama would do those good things—but at the same time would be giving up a measure of congressional authority.

This morning, at Barack Obama’s request, President Bush formally notified Congress of his intent to use the last $350 billion of the financial bailout money.