The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is commonly referred to as “the Stimulus,” and has three immediate goals:
• Create and save jobs
• Spur economic activity and invest in long-term growth by providing $288 billion in tax cuts and benefits; $224 billion to increase funding for entitlement programs; and $275 in contract, grant, and loan awards.
• Foster unprecedented levels of accountability and transparency in Recovery spending.
In addition, the Act established several historic firsts in government:
1. Federal agencies are required to report weekly on how they are distributing the funds.
2. Recipients of contract, grant, and loan awards Recovery funds (state/local governments, universities and other research institutions, non-profit organizations, private companies) are required to report every January, April, June, and October on how they are spending the funds and the number of jobs funded by Recovery.
3. All the information from both agencies and recipients is to be posted on Recovery.gov. which is managed by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board.
Read the entire Act