The Digital States Performance Institute (DSPI)

Stimulus Revealed: Digging Deeper than the $787 Billion Headlines

Mar 8, 2009

Facts and figures about the bill that blew your market share wide open

When Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - the largest federal economic investment ever - it did more than make history. It opened the door to billions of dollars in potential contracts for state and local governments to fill and vendors to seize.

>Broadband
The bill includes billions for technology, including $7.2 billion for broadband. Two federal agencies will distribute the money and each will write its own eligibility requirements. Most of the stimulus -- $4.7 billion -- will come from a bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce called the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The NTIA's share will fund both urban and rural broadband while the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) -- part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- will distribute the remaining $2.5 billion for rural broadband exclusively. The directors of the NTIA and RUS, which Obama has yet to appoint, will decide the eligibility requirements.

According to the Federal Register, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) began a series of meetings starting on March 2 to discuss the broadband grant programs.

>Health Information Technology
Health IT is slated to get $19 billion, with $2 billion aimed at investments in health IT infrastructure and $17 billion to be used for incentives for Medicare and Medicaid providers.

>Clean Energy and Smart Grids
Clean energy is set to get $36.2 billion. Smart grids, which save energy and reduce costs by enabling multiple applications to operate over a shared, interoperable network, will get $11 billion.

>State Stabilization Fund
The State Stabilization Fund, one of the largest single pieces of the stimulus at $53.6 billion, is focused toward helping states avoid budget cuts or to reinstate programs that had already been eliminated. A significant portion of the fund will go to education -- $39.5 billion - with the money distributed via competitive grants to governors.

Timeline

The timeline is now for claiming contracts that will come based on this influx of cash. The first stimulus-based project has already begun in Missouri, an $8.5 million project on the Osage River Bridge. The White House has released a tentative timeline for when the federal government will dole out all funds. On May 3, federal agencies will begin to make performance plans available to the public and begin reporting on their allocations for entitlement programs. Detailed agency financial reports are expected to become available on May 15 and federal agencies are to begin reporting their competitive grants and contracts on May 20. On July 15, recipients of federal funding are to begin reporting their use of funds.