A Nov. 30 OMB memo to agencies, "Improving Compliance in Recovery Act Recipient Reporting," instructed the federal agencies to "compile a verified and detailed list of recipients who were required to report in the October period but failed to do so." The lists was to be submitted to OMB by Dec. 4.

OMB Watch just released a beta version of a new database on FedSpending.org that gives the public improved access to and searchability of Recovery Act recipient report data. The database allows users to search the 160,000 reports from recipients, showing almost $159 billion in spending, which we downloaded from Recovery.gov.

A new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities makes five key points about the Recovery Act that should be repeated over and over, as opponents of federal aid to victims of the Great Recession dig trenches in preparation for combating future relief.

In case it wasn't clear in my last post, tomorrow, Nov. 19, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will be holding a stimulus oversight hearing. It will be the Committee's fifth Recovery Act hearing, the first serious stimulus oversight hearing in Congress since this past July. The hearing, called "Tracking the Money: How Recovery Act Recipients Account for Their Use of Stimulus Dollars," has the usual cast of characters, in that both Earl Devaney, Chairman of the Recovery Board, and Gene Dodaro, Acting Comptroller General of the Government Accountability Office, will both be testifying, along with representatives from the Departments of Transportation and Education. Hopefully the hearing will be better than the last Congressional hearing on the Recovery Act, which wasn't all that useful.