House tries to track stimulus money

House tries to track stimulus money Leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last Friday issued letters to governors, state agencies and metropolitan planning organizations laying out guidelines for overseeing how billions of dollars in federal economic stimulus funds are spent.
   More than 450 letters were sent by Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn., and Peter DeFazio, chairman of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee, and Eddie Johnson, chairman of the Water Resources Subcommittee, regarding their use of recovery funds for roads, bridges, transit and clean water infrastructure projects.
   The letters instruct state and local officials to submit documentation by April 4 certifying they intend to invest the money in projects that can quickly create jobs and do it in a way that is transparent to the public.
   State officials are also expected to maintain transportation investment levels from state coffers and not substitute the stimulus for the state portion of highway commitments. Governors must pledge that projects have received a full cost-benefit analysis and are appropriate uses of taxpayer dollars.
   The $787 billion economic recovery act provides $40 billion for highway, transit and water infrastructure formula programs, as well as another $24 billion in independent funds for high-speed rail, airport improvements and other transportation objectives.
   Specific details sought by the committee include:
   ' A detailed list of projects or activities undertaken with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, along with the purpose, total cost, and rationale for funding the project.
   ' The number of projects that have been put out to bid, are under contract, are underway, or have been completed.
   ' The number of direct and indirect jobs created.
   Some of the information requested, along with the April 4 deadline, go beyond the requirements of the new law, but the committee said they are essential to overseeing how the money is pushed out through existing programs that relying on formulas to divvy up appropriations for states.
   A report aired by CNN Tuesday night underscored just how difficult it will be to control where money goes and how the lack of national transportation priorities mean subjective criteria at the local level will determine which projects get done. The piece focused on a crumbling rural bridge in Missouri that is receiving $8 million of stimulus funds to be reconstructed. The mayor of St. Louis is complaining that more money should go to cities like his where most of the jobless live. Missouri is getting $4 billion from the stimulus package, $600 million of which is for transportation projects. The state Department of Transportation plans to spend $2 million in St. Louis, but says another $200 million will be used for projects around the city.
   The bridge in Tuscumbia is getting money because the state DOT's strategy is to focus first on infrastructure in the worst condition, the report said. ' Eric Kulisch