When the stimulus bill (also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) finally passed, President Obama promised more transparency and accountability with this $787 billion piece of legislation than with any other appropriation in history. Since that time, we've heard stories of dead people receiving stimulus checks, and the only significant investment I've seen publicized is the investment in tons of stimulus-supporting road signs. The lack of real transparency from the Recovery.gov website is perhaps the most troubling part of it all. The Washington Post covered the issue today:
To build support for the stimulus package, President Obama vowed unprecedented transparency, a big part of which, he said, would be allowing taxpayers to track money to the street level on Recovery.gov. Together with a spruced-up WhiteHouse.gov, the site would inject the stodgy federal bureaucracy with the same Webby accessibility and Facebook-generation flair that defined the Obama campaign.
But three months after the bill was signed, Recovery.gov offers little beyond news releases, general breakdowns of spending, and acronym-laden spreadsheets and timelines. And congressional Democrats, state officials and advocates of open government worry that the White House cannot come close to clearing the high bar it set.
I have been tracking the progress of Recovery.gov, and thusfar we haven't seen any of the staples of real transparency. We should be able to search lists of projects, and be able to see in-depth numbers on how much is being spent, where it's being spent, and on what. The site, as it functions right now, seems more like a mix of public relations releases and just enough "breakdown data" to keep people content. The Obama team is unapologetic about the lack of transparency:
Devaney says the site will not post much spending data until October, when recipients must file their first full reports. "I'm not being particularly apologetic about where this site is today," he said. "I would be if someone could show me anything that has happened that isn't on this site."
Where on the site are breakdowns of how much is being spent on road signs, how much is being appropriated (yet sitting unspent) at the state level, and how much is being funneled to dead social security recipients? Those are my questions. There's a reason why the site is being called by some, "Wreckovery.gov".