More Recovery.govs Needed

Staying true to its word, the Obama administration launched Recovery.gov today in conjunction with the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act so that "every American can go online and see how their money is being spent," Obama said in a statement.

Recovery.gov includes an admirable amount of information, including a graph that details where money is being allocated; a timeline of related milestones - from Feb. 13, when Congress finally passed the bill, to July 15, when recipients of the federal funds will begin reporting on how they're using the money; and tabs that provide visitors information about the legislation and the intended impact. A form is also available for leaving comments with the Recovery Accountability and Transparency board, made up of inspector generals from 10 major cabinet agencies, which are charged with ensuring that the Web site fulfills its mandate to help citizens track the spending.

It's not perfect. The site is lacking in detail, and a couple links temporarily returned error messages. But this is only Day One of the site going live, and promises for more information on the distribution of funding by federal agencies as it becomes available seem to indicate that the content will be fleshed out soon enough.

So far, Recovery.gov is earning some positive reviews. One person commented on an MSNBC news item about the site: "I find it very refreshing that an attempt, even if not totally successful, is being made by this administration to be open and above board on things." Another comment reads: "WOW...a party that wants the 'We the people' involved in what is going on...what a concept."

So that begs the question: Why is online tracking of dollars such a novelty? Because no one has really seen anything like it before. USAspending.gov provides some transparency, but only in terms of federal contracts, and certainly not with a high level of granularity. Citizens still don't really know how the billions of dollars appropriated for agency programs are handled, and the federal IT budget is conveniently written with enough ambiguity to leave most any line item up for interpretation. Often it's not until watchdog groups like the Government Accountablity Office or the inspectors general release scathing reports or someone leaks a confidential document to the press that anyone knows just how much money is spent or squandered. Forcing agencies to answer not only to Congress and the administration about how their budgets are spent, but also to the public at large, might bring some degree of diligence to spend wisely.

Recovery.gov provides a refreshing example of how technology can actually create some transparency, though it remains to be seen whether the site will make good on its promise or -- equally important -- start a trend.