All Things Reform: recovery

Showing posts with label recovery. Show all posts

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Help and hold accountable the Obama administration's economic recovery efforts

US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Government reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: OMB Watch

Government transformation through transparency

More than $8 trillion is being spent to rescue the financial sector and stimulate the economy. Who’s getting it? How is it being spent? Is the Recovery Act money saving or creating jobs and what kind of jobs? Is the bailout money generating new loans, and if so, who is getting them?

A contribution to OMB Watch now will help us stay on the beat to ensure the Obama administration answers these types of questions.

The Obama administration has done a remarkable job in creating Recovery.gov and moving money to the states and localities since the Recovery Act was signed into law. Moreover, President Obama has put into motion the beginnings of policies that bring an unprecedented presumption of openness in the way government operates.

Notwithstanding the positive first steps by President Obama, Recovery.gov has not yet lived up to its potential. It is will take a concerted effort from across political lines to build a truly transparent and accountable government.

In this video, I share with you three strategies needed to transform government: changing policies, improving technology, and replacing the culture of secrecy in government with one that prizes disclosure.

OMB Watch, with more than 25 years of experience and expertise, has stepped forward to both help and hold accountable the new administration. Engaging people and organizations across the ideological spectrum, we have two new projects:

Bailout Watch is a partnership with six other organizations that is researching, investigating, and analyzing the federal government's financial bailout activities. Everything we learn will be published so that you will see it, too. Soon we will be reaching out to you to build a broader coalition that reminds the federal government and Wall Street that the bailout should help all Americans, not just wealthy traders and businesses.

The Coalition for an Accountable Recovery (CAR) is comprised of more than 30 organizations to promote transparency and accountability policies and practices for national and state government agencies and contractors that benefit from recovery spending. You can join CAR by signing up online.

Give todayfor a transformed tomorrow through transparency!

Truly Yours, Gary's Signature Gary D. Bass OMB Watch, Executive Director

P.S. A gift of $25.00 or more will help CAR and Bailout Watch work for you!

[Original OMB Watch article accepts comments]

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Thursday, March 19, 2009

Obama’s admin. is set to utilise next generation web technologies to bring an unprecedented level of transparency to government

Image via Wikipedia

Government reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: SitePoint

Obama’s Groundbreaking use of the Semantic Web

by David Peterson

In a revolutionary move, Obama’s administration is set to utilise next generation web technologies to bring an unprecedented level of transparency to government. In this case it will shed light on how the roughly US $800 billion dollar economic stimulus will be spent. The recently launched recovery.gov website (powered by nothing other then Drupal) brought with it the promise that citizens would be able to view where the money was going and how it was going to be spent.

To enable the citizen masher to do their wizardry, the administration will be opening up a veritable candy store of goodies: Semantic Web, RDF, Linked Data, SPARQL, RDFa, SIOC, ATOM, RESTful APIs, JSON, Widgets, Wikis, XForms, P2P Networks. Wow. They only forgot the lions and tigers and bears oh my… This is an unbelievable stack of technology. I didn’t think the government even knew what an RSS feed was :)

[...]

[This SitePoint article allows comments]

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Please donate to Common Cause's project to help ensure transparency to stimulus funding

The US Capitol Building, Washington, DC USA. Image via Wikipedia

Government reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: Common Cause

Only two days left - donate today

Just 2 days left to reach our goal!

Your donation to Common Cause will help ensure Recovery Act transparency and accountability.

Donate today to help us reach our $50,000 goal by Friday.

Unless states enact transparency and accountability measures immediately, billions of dollars in economic stimulus funding could end up lining the pockets of lobbyists and contractors, funding the pet projects of special interests, or simply going to waste.

We can't let that happen. That's why Common Cause is working hard to launch a massive grassroots effort to ensure Recovery Act funds go where they're supposed to: towards boosting the economy, improving our infrastructure, and creating jobs.

Donate today, before it's too late to make sure our tax-dollars are spent wisely!

Since the Recovery Act was announced, Common Cause has led the charge for:

A central website to serve as the primary communication and reporting tool for each state's use of the Recovery Act funds.
An oversight committee to ensure that funds are allotted according to the merit of the project, not the influence of its overseer.
An automated hotline, so that government workers and citizens alike can report any misuse of funds.
Accountability practices that apply from the state and county level all the way down to municipalities and towns, ensuring transparency across the board.

Will you help us make sure these important safeguards become a reality? The Recovery Act offers America an opportunity to rebuild our economy, but it won't work if we don't make sure the process is fair and transparent.

Click here to donate now. We have just 2 days left to meet our $50,000 goal.

Thanks for all you do,

Arn Pearson
and the rest of the team at Common Cause

Common Cause is a national nonpartisan organization with chapters in 38 states. Our mailing address is 1133 19th Street NW, 9th Floor, Washington, DC 20036. Our phone number is (202) 833-1200.

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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Recovery information on government web sites so far meet with mixed results

Image via Wikipedia

Government reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: OMB Watch

Recovery Transparency Meets Mixed Results

Three weeks after President Barack Obama signed into law the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act), states have begun to see federal economic stimulus funds move within their borders. Behind the hundreds of billions of dollars soon to follow are some 25 federal departments, agencies, and administrations that are in charge of allocating the funds. In addition to this unprecedented level of emergency spending is a pledge by Obama to "watch the taxpayers' money with more rigor and transparency than ever." The speed at which the administration and some federal agencies have moved is impressive, even as there has been uneven implementation of transparency efforts.

Spending data on Recovery.gov, the new website established to monitor how the Recovery Act is being implemented, is organized haphazardly. To find information on Medicaid disbursements, for example, one must comb through a list of press releases to find a link to that spending. The Recovery.gov website links to the Recovery Act legislative text and contains a breakdown of the act's spending provisions by spending area (e.g. health, transportation, tax cuts, etc.), but the website does not – perhaps cannot yet, given the short time frame of its implementation – contain a listing of all federal Recovery Act programs with their attendant funding levels and state allocations. This fact, however, is mitigated by information provided by federal agency Recovery Act websites – a list of which is available on Recovery.gov.

When the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued guidelines to the federal agencies on Recovery Act spending, it mandated that they establish on their own websites a specific and easy-to-find area to detail Recovery Act spending. These Recovery Act sections of agency websites are all located by adding "/recovery" after the agency's web address. For example, the Department of Transportation's Recovery site is located at "www.dot.gov/recovery." The Recovery Act and subsequent instructions to create agency websites are only weeks old, but some agencies have moved adroitly and are providing organized, detailed information. Other agencies have not done so.

[...]

The level of transparency envisioned by the administration is ambitious, and with a law that is barely three weeks old, missteps and less than one hundred percent compliance is to be expected. Tracking Recovery Act spending at the program level, however, is only one challenge the Obama administration faces when it comes to spending accountability. As Recovery Act funds are disbursed to the states through contractors and subcontractors (and grantees and subgrantees), a sophisticated system of data reporting gathering will be required. In an effort to assist the administration in developing such a system, the Coalition for an Accountable Recovery (CAR), co-chaired by OMB Watch and Good Jobs First, has put forth its recommendations for a Recovery Act data collection and reporting system in a memorandum, "Interim Recovery.gov Data Reporting Architecture." It is certain that a series of iterations will be necessary to refine such a model to achieve the transparency articulated by the Obama administration, and as such, the CAR coalition will continue to solicit feedback from stakeholders and the administration to that end.

( 03/10/09)

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Please support independent federal finance watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense

Government reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: Taxpayers for Common Sense

[TCS has been an integral watchdog of our federal government's fiscal activities. The below letter from them reminds us of how critical they are during this time of economic crisis. If you can, please financially support this independent taxpayer's friend in bringing to light these momentous days in Washington. Thank you.]

about : contact : TCS home : donate

Dear Fellow Taxpayer,

The price tag for the government's response to the economic crisis keeps growing.

As you've probably heard, the $787 billion stimulus was signed into law on Tuesday. This afternoon a $75 billion Homeowner Stability Initiative was unveiled by the Obama Administration. GM and Chrysler are back in Washington asking for $22 billion more in taxpayer help. And we're still looking for details on the Treasury's plans for the second half of the $700 billion bank bailout program.

The need for an independent, experienced, fiercely dedicated budget watchdog is growing by-the-minute.

If you have not done so yet, and can support our work, please consider making a donation today.

Donate Here

We need your support to hold the federal government, state agencies, and government contractors accountable for the billions being directed from Washington. Many people have asked me what role TCS can play in bringing oversight and transparency to the spending of our tax dollars? With a new administration vowing to be more transparent and www.recovery.gov on-line, what does TCS add?

Well, we add a lot:

100% Independence

We take no money from political parties, the government, corporations, or labor unions. The only person we work for is you, the taxpayer. We don't pull punches out of fear of upcoming elections, Wall Street's reaction, or having our budget cut by some political boss. Non-partisan, objective, and speaking the truth—whether you are going to like what you hear or not.

Experience

We've been down this road before. Our budget specialists have plumbed the depths of the federal budget for years. We have an intimate knowledge of dozens of waste-prone programs and agencies (post-Katrina FEMA contracts, the Army Corps of Engineers, Iraq contracting, etc.) and have seen nearly every trick in the legislative book.

Unmatched Commitment

My staff has been called a lot of things: hard-working, efficient, dogged, even scrappy…and that's just by our allies. But one thing we've never been called: lazy. Nearly every day someone fires-up their computer before dawn. The oil in our office burns well past midnight. And weekends—they're a great time for kids' soccer matches and made-from-scratch pancakes, as well as earmark databasing and catching-up on archived C-Span hearings.

For fourteen years, TCS has been a crucial voice for taxpayers on Capitol Hill. We have exposed the big spenders and fought for greater transparency. In the midst of a financial crisis and an unprecedented federal response, taxpayers need a strong and independent voice in Washington now more than ever.

Please help strengthen the voice of taxpayers in Washington and support our work today.

Sincerely,

Ms. Ryan Alexander
President

P.S. We depend on the support of people like you. Please make a donation in support of our work today. And to stay on top of breaking news concerning the management of your tax dollars, visit us at www.taxpayer.net.

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