The Senate is currently debating the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (S. 336), (or just "ARRA" or close friends and associates). And as we noted last week, the tax cuts and spending in the House version (HR 1) were receiving wide press attention, but we were more interested in the bill's transparency and accountability language. Today, we turn the spotlight on the analogue provisions in the Senate bill.

In short: They're pretty similar -- identical, even, in some places -- but the Senate has generally watered down the transparency and accountability language.

And for your convenience, we've produced a side-by-side comparison of both bills.

The House and Senate bills would both require that an Accountability and Transparency Board create a website that would be a "portal or gateway to key information related to this Act" and include "data on relevant economic, financial, grant, and contract information;" "detailed data on contracts awarded by the Government;" and "a means for the public to give feedback on the performance of contracts."

However, the House bill goes further and would require that, with respect to money expended on infrastructure projects, the applicable federal, state, or local authority post on the stimulus website a notification to the public of funds obligated to particular infrastructure investments.

Read our full analysis here.

Image by Flickr user djLicious used under a Creative Commons license.