By Billy House
Media General News Service
Media General News Service
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Stumble It!
WASHINGTON -- Maybe it's curiosity. Or worry. Or both.
A Web site launched by the White House last month to allow citizens to keep track of where stimulus dollars are going is getting 3,000 hits per second and already has registered more than 150 million hits altogether.
"Amazing," is how Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman described that news from Robert Nabors, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, at a hearing Thursday.
Lieberman said he presumes such interest "reflects both the anxiety and urgency with which the American people want to see us doing something to get the economy going again."
But others aren't so impressed with what users are finding in return for all that clicking on to Recovery.gov.
Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a government watchdog group, concedes it's been only a couple of weeks since the site was launched on Feb. 17, hours before President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus measure into law.
"I know things can evolve," said Ellis. "But it's not that easy to get a grasp on where the money is going so far."
For instance, there is no quick way right now to determine from the site funding amounts headed to Florida and its communities for specific uses or programs, or even aggregated amounts for the state and municipalities.
Instead, users must sift through a growing list of White House press releases piled onto the site's home page that have announced different categories of funding as the money has been allocated.
Then, the user is typically required to exit the Recovery.gov page through a link via the press release to the site of the pertinent federal agency, and from there locate spreadsheets, maps or other lists that may provide state and local numbers.
One example: Obama on Friday announced $2 billion in stimulus money for state and local law enforcement assistance.
But to learn Florida gets about $135 million of that money - or that Hillsborough County receives $2 million and the City of Tampa $1.7 million - the user is required to follow a link contained on the site's news release to the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance's "Recovery Act" Web site.
Once there, the user can click onto the state of Florida on a national map, and get a spreadsheet that breaks down the funding by county and municipality.
But it's not always that easy.
On Feb. 25, the Obama administration announced that the Department of Housing and Urban Development had allocated $10.1 billion. A link on the press release takes users to another press release on HUD's Web site.
From there, another link on that press release takes the user to HUD's special "Recovery Web site." On that page, there are yet further links to pages detailing eight different funding categories ranging from homelessness prevention to Native American Block Grants.
But to get local funding numbers, the user then must click yet more links located on the individual category pages.
"It seems everything is there. But you have to go to a lot of different places to actually find all the information," says Ellis.
There also is a search engine. But type in the words "Native American," for instance, and nothing comes up suggesting there has been money released as Native American Block Grants.
And Ellis said this process assumes, probably wrongly, that most users are even aware of all the categories of funding allocated so far - and the hundreds of other categories to come.
A White House spokesman responded Friday that state details will become easier to access because many states are launching their own Recovery Act Web pages. Those pages are expected to aggregate and explain how money received is being spent.
Some of those sites, such as one for North Carolina -- http://www.ncrecovery.gov/-- are already up and running and are providing updates. They can be accessed through the Recovery.gov Web site under a heading that asks: "Curious about the recovery progress in your state? Learn more about state recovery efforts here."
Florida has not yet launched such a site.
"A Web site is expected soon," responded Erin Isaac, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Charlie Crist.
Lieberman said Thursday that the high interest in the Recovery.gov Web site shows the American people want to understand where the money from the $787 billion stimulus bill is going and how much people "want us to make sure the money is spent efficiently and well."
Reporter Billy House can be reached at mediageneral.com or at 1 (202) 662-7673.
A Web site launched by the White House last month to allow citizens to keep track of where stimulus dollars are going is getting 3,000 hits per second and already has registered more than 150 million hits altogether.
"Amazing," is how Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman described that news from Robert Nabors, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, at a hearing Thursday.
Lieberman said he presumes such interest "reflects both the anxiety and urgency with which the American people want to see us doing something to get the economy going again."
But others aren't so impressed with what users are finding in return for all that clicking on to Recovery.gov.
Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a government watchdog group, concedes it's been only a couple of weeks since the site was launched on Feb. 17, hours before President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus measure into law.
"I know things can evolve," said Ellis. "But it's not that easy to get a grasp on where the money is going so far."
For instance, there is no quick way right now to determine from the site funding amounts headed to Florida and its communities for specific uses or programs, or even aggregated amounts for the state and municipalities.
Instead, users must sift through a growing list of White House press releases piled onto the site's home page that have announced different categories of funding as the money has been allocated.
Then, the user is typically required to exit the Recovery.gov page through a link via the press release to the site of the pertinent federal agency, and from there locate spreadsheets, maps or other lists that may provide state and local numbers.
One example: Obama on Friday announced $2 billion in stimulus money for state and local law enforcement assistance.
But to learn Florida gets about $135 million of that money - or that Hillsborough County receives $2 million and the City of Tampa $1.7 million - the user is required to follow a link contained on the site's news release to the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance's "Recovery Act" Web site.
Once there, the user can click onto the state of Florida on a national map, and get a spreadsheet that breaks down the funding by county and municipality.
But it's not always that easy.
On Feb. 25, the Obama administration announced that the Department of Housing and Urban Development had allocated $10.1 billion. A link on the press release takes users to another press release on HUD's Web site.
From there, another link on that press release takes the user to HUD's special "Recovery Web site." On that page, there are yet further links to pages detailing eight different funding categories ranging from homelessness prevention to Native American Block Grants.
But to get local funding numbers, the user then must click yet more links located on the individual category pages.
"It seems everything is there. But you have to go to a lot of different places to actually find all the information," says Ellis.
There also is a search engine. But type in the words "Native American," for instance, and nothing comes up suggesting there has been money released as Native American Block Grants.
And Ellis said this process assumes, probably wrongly, that most users are even aware of all the categories of funding allocated so far - and the hundreds of other categories to come.
A White House spokesman responded Friday that state details will become easier to access because many states are launching their own Recovery Act Web pages. Those pages are expected to aggregate and explain how money received is being spent.
Some of those sites, such as one for North Carolina -- http://www.ncrecovery.gov/-- are already up and running and are providing updates. They can be accessed through the Recovery.gov Web site under a heading that asks: "Curious about the recovery progress in your state? Learn more about state recovery efforts here."
Florida has not yet launched such a site.
"A Web site is expected soon," responded Erin Isaac, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Charlie Crist.
Lieberman said Thursday that the high interest in the Recovery.gov Web site shows the American people want to understand where the money from the $787 billion stimulus bill is going and how much people "want us to make sure the money is spent efficiently and well."
Reporter Billy House can be reached at mediageneral.com or at 1 (202) 662-7673.