Email This StoryEditorial: New Web site important for holding government officials accountable
Nov. 4, 2009
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Claire Taylor | Lariat Staff |
On Feb. 17, 2009, in order to help an ailing national economy, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama.
The $787 billion piece of legislation appropriates funds for a wide variety of federal programs and increases benefits in areas such as Medicaid and unemployment.
The Recovery Act is also the originator of a Web site that promotes public knowledge of how the stimulus funding is being used: recovery.gov.
As an official government Web site, recovery.gov allows taxpayers to clearly see how "recovery money" is being spent. Recovery.gov is a step in the right direction toward a goal of governmental transparency.
Focusing specifically on stimulus funds, the site allows users to track the expenditures of recovery money in their state, county, zip code and congressional district.
The Recovery Act granted funding to 28 government agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Energy. These agencies, as of October 2009, began filing weekly financial reports noting how funds are spent. The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, a board that was established by the Recovery Act, is responsible for keeping Recovery.gov up to date.
Within every federal agency there is an inspector general, who logs information of how stimulus money is being spent. That information is now easily accessible to the public because of recovery.gov.
Some of the information that is available on recovery.gov includes agency financial reports, Recovery plans, instructions on how to report fraudulent use of stimulus funding and much more.
The information that is put together on the site includes data from several other government-run sources such as the FederalReporting.gov database, the Federal Procurement Data System and USASpending.gov.
The Web site puts information together that is gathered both from the federal agencies and from the actual recipients of the funds.
According to Recovery.gov the Waco zip code 76706 has received 11 grants totaling $1,875,493, one contract totaling $2,256,483 and no loans. The site also reported 18 new jobs for the zip code.
The entire state of Texas has received a total 6,224 awards, including grants, loans and contracts. Texas is also ranked 10th on the list for most jobs created or saved, having saved 19,571 jobs. According to the site, the total number of jobs that have been created and saved in the nation according to recovery money recipients now totals 640,329.
Recovery.gov will enhance government transparency and promote accountability in government spending.
This site allows those who are now, more than ever before, watching the use of tax money closely, to view expenditures on both a nationwide and specific-area level.
This site allows an immense amount of data to be accessible to the public in various ways that are both effective and easy to understand.
On another level, the addition is culturally-appropriate. In the 21st century, having this information only in paper form would hardly be considered transparent. Clearly, the administration understood that.
Recovery.gov offers all spending data in an XML-like format for developers. This allows Web site developers to create personal mashups and gadgets that accurately display the spending information on their personal Web sites.
Congress and President Obama made an admirable choice in mandating the creation of this site. Since excessive and reckless handling of government funds was a factor in the recent economic downturn, a site that aids in keeping the government accountable is a necessity to the improvement of our nation.
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