Background
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also called the “Stimulus Law,” was signed into law on February 17, 2009 by President Obama. The Act provides “provides $ 21.5 billion in additional funds for scientific endeavors.”
On February 18th, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued the initial guidance for federal agencies, “Initial Implementing Guidance for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.” This document includes some details related to allocation of grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements and on the extensive new reporting requirements for recipients of Recovery Act funds. OMB will be publishing further guidance, including more details on specific reporting instructions and on how the data collection will work government-wide.
Some of the new reporting requirements that may be appearing in terms and conditions for awards made with Recovery Act funds include (from page 14 of the OMB Guidance):
- Quarterly financial and technical reports
- Reports on number of jobs created
- Evaluation of the completion status of a project
- Detailed information on any subcontracts or subgrants to include data elements required to comply with the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006
General information on the Recovery Act will be published on the new Recovery.gov site, but federal agencies receiving the funds are also required to establish a page with specific information. Agencies have just begun to publish initial plans, and should have further grant information available soon. Federal agencies will generally have two years to spend the Recovery Act funds. Links to sources of information on the Recovery Act are listed below. |
