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Eye on the Stimulus

Congress Does Repair Job on Stimulus School Construction Plan

Structural faults in the gym at Jones Senior High School in Trenton, N.C. (REI Engineering)

Last December, we reported in USA Today that a plan to subsidize billions of dollars in school construction under the stimulus bill had largely flopped.

Now, Congress has passed a fix to get the program back on track. President Obama signed the bill today.

"We're excited about this," said Ben Matthews, director of school support for North Carolina's Department of Public Instruction. The state was among many that couldn't take full advantage of the program because of red tape, technical glitches and difficulty persuading lenders to participate.

Stimulus Spending Cracks 40 Percent

An excavator slows down traffic in a construction zone on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, where work has begun on a $7 million stimulus-funded facelift. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)The Obama administration has spent $317 billion of last February’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to the latest numbers from Recovery.gov. The funds include $198 billion in spending and an estimated $119 billion in tax cuts, and represent just over 40 percent of the nearly $800 billion stimulus package.

You can track stimulus spending by agency on our interactive Stimulus Progress Bar. You can also see how fast that money is moving out the door, by checking out our Stimulus Speed Chart.

Senate Acknowledges Need for More Accountability on Stimulus

March 15: This post has been updated.

Sen. Mark Warner speaking on the Senate floor about his amendment to fix gaps in how the federal government tracks stimulus spending. (Courtesy of the Web site of Sen. Mark Warner)Not a big, flashy headline, but we thought it was worth noting:

Today the Senate unanimously voted to amend a jobs bill with new rules to strengthen the government's tracking and reporting of stimulus spending and its effectiveness. Sponsored by Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, the new amendment requires federal agencies to assess and update current methods for tracking stimulus funds and to file quarterly reports for Congress and the public. Grant recipients that "knowing and consistently" fail to meet these requirements could face fines of up to $250,000.

Get Your State’s Recovery Data From ProPublica

We're making the data supporting our Recovery Tracker available to you upon request. Check out our tracker to see what you need.

If you're on our data tools and reporting features e-mail list, you got a heads-up about this last night.

We're making the data supporting our Recovery Tracker available to you upon request. Just fill out this form and we'll get you state data within 48 hours.

The Recovery Tracker includes all the data used on the government's stimulus Web site, Recovery.gov, and thousands of records the feds didn't include -- the law doesn't require all recipients to report to Recovery.gov. We also cleaned out the cobwebs. Altogether they're the most comprehensive publicly available analysis of stimulus spending.

Stimulus Spending Now at $314 Billion

A construction worker stops traffic on Sunset Boulevard as he helps an excavator move where work has began on the Recovery Act-financed $7 million facelift on Jan. 28, 2010, in West Hollywood. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)The Obama administration has paid out $314 billion of the nearly $800 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to our weekly breakdown. That figure, which includes $195 billion in spending and an estimated $119 billion in tax cuts, is just shy of 40 percent of the total stimulus package.

You can see more information on stimulus spending, including a breakdown of spending by agency, at our interactive Stimulus Progress Bar. You can also see how fast each agency is spending its money by checking out our Stimulus Speed Chart.

Track the Stimulus: Interactive Tools

Recovery Tracker
Find stimulus projects happening near you. (Updated: March 2010)
Want CSVs of our stimulus data? Fill out this signup form.

Stimulus Speed Chart
Which government agencies are the slowest at getting stimulus money out the door? Updated weekly.

Stimulus Spending Progress
How quickly are federal agencies spending? Updated weekly.

ProPublica’s Unofficial Guide to Recovery.gov
Confused by the government's official stimulus data Web site? Our guide will tell you how to navigate it.

How to Background Check Stimulus Companies
A guide of tips and resources on researching the background of companies getting stimulus funds.

Resources
Photo by flickr user sparkieblues http://www.flickr.com/photos/sparkieblues/3971258497/

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