Yesterday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Rep. Edolphus “Ed” Towns (D-NY), announced that it "is conducting a broad investigation of problems with the Federal procurement system." The announcement states that as part of the investigation, the committee is examining the suspicious events surrounding contracts awarded by the Army's Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) uncovered in a recent Washington Post exposé.

Following up on my and Craig's recent posts on the OMB and CBO updated economic outlooks released on Tuesday, the Bureau of National Affairs (subscription required) ran a piece yesterday further exploring the effects of the sagging economy on spending and deficit projections, which are often overlooked in the heated debates over this issue.

Pop quiz time folks. If you had $15 million in Recovery Act funding to spend on a border checkpoint, which of these two checkpoints would you choose to spend the money on:

A) A checkpoint in Laredo, Texas, which serves more than 55,000 travelers and 4,200 trucks a day, and is rated among the government's highest priorities,

or

B) A sleepy Montana checkpoint along the Canadian border that sees about three travelers a day.

Personally, I would probably go with option A.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released strikingly similar updated budget and economic outlook numbers this morning. As expected, the budget deficit will come in just under earlier predictions. OMB's Mid-Session Review places the government's total red ink for the year at $1.58 trillion, while CBO estimates $1.6 trillion. The government's long-term debt, which the White House now predicts will grow faster than previous estimates, will stand at 9.05 trillion in ten years. CBO paints a slightly rosier picture, projecting the 10-year debt to stand at $7.14 trillion, but admits that their assumptions about projected revenues over that time are high by historical standards, and, conversely, their assumptions about projected discretionary spending are low. Although these estimates are hardly certain, especially the long-term debt numbers, there is no doubt they will generate a great deal of discussion.