This is a little old, but for those of you keeping score at home, The Atlantic last month put out a great way to visualize what's going on with both the bailout and the Recovery. The graphic does an excellent job of showing how the bailout, while huge at some $787 billion, is almost puny compared to the trillions of dollars the Federal Reserve could be pumping into the system through asset purchases. It's always good to keep some perspective on the situation, and graphics like this help explain why we think it's important to make sure the Fed programs are held to the same transparency and accountability standards as the Recovery Act programs.

In a report released last week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS), a database on contractors consulted by federal agencies to award contracts, is woefully deficient in the value of information it provides.

Last week, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced its intention to scrap a two-year-long, $19.5 million project to create a new tax-filing website. The agency's Chief Information Officer cancelled the new website due to "the lack of a comprehensive enterprise strategy that considered industry best practices or advancements in portal technology, and budget challenges due to the significant expenditure requirements necessary to replace existing equipment." That's government speak for, "We let this project get out of hand by not employing proper oversight, and so, now the stuff we were going to buy to utilize our newfangled website won't work with it." You can read the rest of the agency's explanation in their report. Guess those new heights of customer service IRS was striving towards will have to wait a few years.

Yesterday, the conference committee assembled to hash out a final weapons acquisition reform bill released the new legislation and a summary report after the two sides came to agreement on Tuesday over the few issues of contention. We are currently going through the language of the bill to assess the final product, but it looks as though the conferees did not strengthen the potentially disastrous Murray amendment, and chose an independent cost analyst reporting to the Secretary of Defense over just an assistant to the secretary. If we catch anything appalling, we will post it, or, if you read through and see anything, please post your comments.