Words and Light

President Barack Obama is to sign the federal economic stimulus bill into law at 2:30 p.m. CST in Denver, Colo. In my research of the bill (also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), I’ve found a few valuable links definitely worth sharing.

For some of these (mostly the bill’s actual language), I’m a few days late. For others (mostly the later links via the National Conference of State Legislators), the information has just been posted online. Regardless of the timeliness of this influx of information, it’s valuable stuff and I hope it’s helpful.

First — the bill’s actual language is available on-line. If you care to sift or skim through more than 1,000 pages of legislative and economic lingo, here’s your heyday. I just hope these links, courtesy of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, will be permanent.

• Official press release from office of Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) — contains the usual strong statements found in press releases
• Summary overview of the stimulus bill — provides a quick and dirty breakdown of appropriations to various sectors/departments
• Detailed summary of the stimulus bill — contains more language on various appropriations highlighted in the summary overview (previous link)
• Accountability provisions — establishes all presets and oversight regulations of the bill
• Bill Text: Division A — is the full, actual bill language of the accountability provisions and the purposes/principles
• Bill Text: Division B — is the full, actual bill language on the tax provisions/incentives for businesses and programs and the tax relief for individuals and families
• Joint Statement: Division A — is the full, actual language regarding the conference between the House and Senate on Division A of the bill text
• Joint Statement: Division B — is the full, actual language regarding the conference between the House and Senate on Division B of the bill text

Also, here are some more federal government PDFs I found via the National Conference of State Legislators’ Web site. These are mostly summaries to show direct impact.

• Full summary of provisions — reduces the bill lingo into common-sense terms, via the Senate Finance, House Ways and Means Committees; has information breakdown of the following topics:
  • tax relief for individuals/families
  • tax incentives for businesses
  • manufacturing recovery provisions
  • economic recovery tools
  • infrastructure financing tools
  • reinvestment in renewable energy
  • assistance for families and unemployed workers
  • health insurance assistance
  • state fiscal relief and medicaid
  • health information technology
  • trade provisions
  • debt limit
• Detailed summary of energy and commerce provisions — reduces the bill lingo into common-sense terms, via the U.S. House; has information breakdown of the following topics:
  • provisions on Medicaid and the unemployed
  • health information technology
  • provisions on broadband infrastructure
  • provisions on energy
• Congressional Budget Office’s estimate on the bill’s budgetary impact — includes the official letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as five pages of charts/tables detailing the estimated costs of the bill

Finally, here are some more links via NCSL. These are more information breakdowns intended to help state legislators and the general public read more into the bill’s language and impact.

• NCSL’s summary of Medicaid FMAP increase provisions — explains different numbers, appropriation breakdowns and impacts on various parts of FMAP; includes formulas that state legislators can use to determine appropriations and impacts
• NCSL’s explanation of “maintenance of effort” — explains, in common language (as opposed to legislative), the “maintenance of effort” stipulation placed on state stabilization funds
• NCSL’s summary of general governing provisions — clarifies certain stipulations that states must meet to receive the federal stimulus funds appropriated to them (information varies from how the funds can be certified to the type of materials/labor used in construction projects)

So. Those are all the resources I found from the federal government and a very trustworthy NGO (i.e., NCSL) regarding the U.S.’s biggest stimulus package since World War II. Happy reading!