AppFactory

Federal Budget Process Diagram Makes It Look Easy

Nice diagram from the WSJ. Makes the budget approval process look easy. Given the Dems "we're-in-control-now-so-tough-luck-Rush" control over the process, September is actually possible.

Recovery Act Snapshot

Here's a slide that summarizes the Initial Implementing Guidance provided to agencies last week.

The Administration is committed to investing Recovery Act dollars with an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability so Americans know where their tax dollars are going and how they are being spent. The guidance issued today contains critical action steps that Federal agencies must take immediately to meet these objectives and to implement the Act effectively.

Obama's approach is pointed squarely at the dysfunctions of government management and operations, e.g. serving the bureaucracy trumps serving the public; get funded for one thing, use (some of) the money for something else; blow the money feeding the procurement, contracting, and auditing machinery; blow the money on unaccountable vendors; set no real measures for success, etc...
Recovery Act

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Presentations & Slid obama omb

Economic Data Transparency and Open Government

Some developing sources of government data.

Economic Activity
Example - Reporting of Bank Assets, Deposits, and Profitability
Regulator - FDIC
FIDC Data
Benefit - Improve and reduce time it takes to gain awareness of economic activity levels
Data Evaluation: Pretty Good. Mature reporting system of quarterly data.

Financial Markets Activity
Example - Credit Default Swaps
Regulators (Future) - Federal Reserve, Treasury
Benefit - Reduce exposure and risk associated with derivatives trading volumes
DTCC Data
Evaluation: Improving, but needs work. Public interface tacked on to existing system.

Government Accountability
Example - TARP
Regulator - Treasury
Benefit - Enable the public to track tax dollar spending US Treasury
US Treasury Data
Data Evaluation: Needs a lot of work. Just PDFs published periodically.

Government Accountability
Example - American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
Regulator: TBD
Benefit: TBD
Evaluation: TBD

Obama's Open Government Memo

Short and to the point.

01212009 Gov Openness Memo

Publish at Scribd or explore others:

Bush Let's Two Go, Libby isn't One of Them

Oh well. Clinton went for it, but Bush didn't. We were all prepared for the Libby story... and we get only this (via the NY Times):

President Bush on Monday commuted the sentences of two former border patrol agents who had been sentenced to more than a decade in prison for shooting and seriously wounding a Mexican drug dealer in Texas in 2005.

Below is a historical widget chronicling George W. Bush's pardons (that needs some updating). Most are the routine wheels of justice turning... some relate to the S&L scandal. Search for TX to see pardons from Bush's home state.