Today, four House Democrat leaders, including Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Rep. David Obey (D-WI), released a strongly worded letter that expresses their displeasure with President Obama's use of a signing statement to reassert his right to ignore the conditions placed on the IMF funding for purposes of conducting foreign policy.

Hot on the heels of the newly-announced redesign, Recovery.gov today unveiled a new recipient mapping feature. The new map lets users zoom in and out on a map of the country, with each Recovery Act project represented as a dot on the map, and dot size varying based on the number of projects per location. The map also allows users to sort by state (or associated regions, as even the Federated States of Micronesia is on here for some reason), size of contract, grant, or loan, and agency.

Last week, the House Appropriations Committee approved the 2010 fiscal year Financial Services spending bill.  Along the way, one of the amendments that failed to make the cut was to "enact into law H.R. 1557 (the “Securing America’s Future Economy Commission Act”)".  This amendment would've created a 16-member commission charged with creating recommendations to reduce the country's long-term debt.  With a maximum of four members of Congress, this commission would have had the power to create legislation that would be considered by the House and Senate.