Economy -- 9 in 10 Americans Negative on Economy: A Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that nine in 10 Americans -- including a wide majority of Republicans -- now give the economy a negative rating, with a majority saying it is in "poor" shape, the most to say so in more than 15 years. Republicans are even sour about the efficacy of the stimulus tax rebate, with 68 percent saying it will fail to abate the slowdown, an increase of 21 points since February. Story.

In yesterday's Daily Fiscal Policy Report, we noted that real average weekly earnings in March were up compared to February, while they were down compared to March, 2007. Today, the BLS released data on real median weekly earnings, which, like average weekly earnings, have declined since a year ago.

Economy -- Housing Starts Lowest in 17 Years: Housing starts tumbled nearly 12 percent in March to their lowest level since March 1991, with big declines in all four national regions, falling to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 947,000, a decline of 11.9 percent from February, according to a joint Commerce and Housing and Urban Development report released yesterady. The year-on-year decline is 36.5 percent. Story.

By a voice vote, the the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved a bill (HR 5712) that would close a loophole in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) that excuses federal contractors working overseas from reporting fraud. The loophole was inserted into the federal procurement rules and was published in November of last year as part of a contracting oversight measure. Called a "drafting error" by GSA chief acquisition officer David Drabkin, the loophole exempts companies performing federal contracts overseas from mandatory reporting of employee contract fraud.