On Sunday (July 26) Federal Reserve Bank chief Ben Bernanke sat down with Jim Lehrer of PBS's News Hour to defend recent bold actions of the central bank to shore the nation's financial system. Specifically, Congress and many Americans question the wisdom of engineering a $29 billion bailout of Bear Stearns (as competitor Lehman Brothers lay dying in a pool of its own red ink); the extension of over $2 trillion in loans and loan guarantees using who-knows-what as collateral; and a doubling of the monetary base.

A project by the nation's Chief Information Officer, Vivek Kundra, has lead to the suspension of some 45 information technology (IT) projects at the Veterans Administration. Unveiled earlier this month, the “'IT Dashboard' is a new, one-stop clearinghouse of information that allows anyone with a web browser to track federal IT initiatives..."

This morning the Special Inspector for TARP released a report based on a survey of some 360 financial institutions that received TARP funds. The report finds that:

Many banks reported that TARP funds allowed them to increase lending for residential and commercial loans, small business loans, credit card loans, and other types of lending. Most firms reported multiple and sometimes interrelated uses; a majority of respondents’ reported that they used the funds primarily for lending, building capital reserves and investing...

As members of Congress trickle back from the July Fourth recess, senators will continue debating the FY 2010 Legislative Branch spending bill. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has offered an amendment to the bill that would require senators to disclose their official expenditures online in a publicly searchable format. Members of the House are already required to post their expenses online.