On Tuesday, May 19, the House of Representatives passed by voice vote a bill (H.R. 2182) that has been bouncing around that chamber for about a month. The Enhanced Oversight of State and Local Economic Recovery Act, which was introduced by Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY), would help state and local governments fund Recovery Act oversight activities, such as audits, data collection and reporting responsibilities, and fraud and waste investigations. In particular, it allows state and local governments to set aside up to 0.5 percent of their Recovery Act money to fund these activities.

Now, 0.5 percent might not seem like a lot, but on something such as a $1 million contract, that translates into $5,000, and aggregated across all of the projects in a state, it adds up. This money would be very useful to cash-strapped states, which might be thinking about (or are already) cutting back on auditing budgets.

From here, the bill goes to the Senate, where a companion bill (S. 1064), was passed by Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on May 20. It's not on the calendar yet, but hopefully it will come onto the floor in the next week or so. And since it passed by voice vote in the House (voice votes are typically used to move non-controversial pieces of legislation along) and enjoys bipartisan support, its future looks good.

Image by Flickr user laura padgett. Used under a Creative Commons license.