Despite the rest of the world learning about it on Wednesday, last Friday the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (RAT Board) posted a press release announcing the General Services Administration's awarding of the contract to redesign Recovery.gov. Notwithstanding its late appearance, the post is definitely a good thing, since it is the first time Recovery.gov has even acknowledged that the current site is effectively Recovery.gov 1.0. Before this, the redesign has never even been mentioned on the site.

The Government Accountability Office on Wednesday released its second bi-monthly review of the Recovery Act, which looks at how sixteen states and the District of Columbia use and track their recovery funds. This report in particular focuses on Medicaid funding, highway infrastructure, the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, and the various accountability measures states and federal agencies have put in place. It's a long report (167 pages for the main report, plus another 736 pages [!] for the individual states appendixes), so we're still digesting it.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a non-profit fiscal policy institute, released a report yesterday questioning the accuracy of two recent reports from the American Family Business Foundation (AFBF) that claim repeal of the federal estate tax could create upward of 1 million jobs relatively cost free.

Last night, as expected, the Senate passed the $3.1 billion FY 2010 Legislative Branch appropriations bill by a vote of 67-25. Final passage of the bill included Sen. Coburn's amendment requiring all senators to disclose their yearly expenditures in a publicly searchable online format. The Senate approved the amendment by voice vote.