Tracking job creation, errors, and corrections in recipient reporting

A major component of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is the ability to monitor how funds are being spent and the number of jobs created.  The House Appropriations Committee pledged that “a historic level of transparency, oversight, and accountability will help guarantee taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and Americans can see results for their investment.”  All recipient reporting for first quarter activity for grants, loans, and contracts are currently available on Recovery.gov, which covers how stimulus funds are being spent, where work is occurring, and how many jobs are being created or saved as a direct result of the stimulus.  (Read previous posts on recipient reporting in the blog.)  CMAP will begin to analyze reported data for the region, and findings will be included in our Recovery blog and in future Economic Recovery Updates, which you can sign up to receive online.

This effort to achieve transparency has recently received significant media attention due to the discovery of inaccurate recipient reporting published on Recovery.gov.  At the local level, Chicago Tribune reported on overestimations of education jobs created or saved in Illinois (in response, the Illinois State Board of Education was asked by the governor to verify numbers of jobs created).  Based on reports by the Associated Press and other news outlets across the country, approximately 10 percent of the 640,329 of the jobs created or saved by the stimulus are “doubtful or imaginary,” according to the Washington Examiner (which also created a map to show where erroneous reported occurred).  Additionally, some reports on stimulus funds were said to occur in congressional districts that are nonexistent, according to McClatchy. 

Steps are being taken in government to correct these errors, and CMAP will be monitoring this process as we analyze reported data for the region.  The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, at the request of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), was able to correct reports from non-existent congressional districts on Wednesday, according to a press release.  In many cases, recipients incorrectly recorded their congressional districts when filling reports.

Errors and corrections that should be made to correctly monitor job creation are covered in a report released November 19, 2009 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).  The report noted that the data collected from over 100,000 recipients was a “solid first step in moving toward more transparency and accountability for federal funds,” but analysis of recipient data indicated that “there are a range of significant reporting and quality issues that need to be addressed.”  The areas of concern include almost 4,000 reports that showed no funding received by included over 50,000 jobs that were created or retained and over 9,000 reports that showed no jobs were created by accounted for nearly $1 billion in stimulus funds.  Some reports also featured discrepancies between the amount of funds awarded verses the amount of funds reported as received.  Despite much training and guidance from OMB, many recipients had differing interpretations of how the amount of jobs created or retained by the stimulus should be calculated.

GAO recommended that, to improve consistency in job creation/retention reporting, OMB should clarify the calculation process and continue to provide assistance to recipients of funding and federal agencies distributing funds.  It was also recommended that OMB work with the Recovery Board and federal agencies to “reexamine review and quality assurance processes, procedures, and requirements,” according to the GAO report.

It is important to remember that only 22 percent, approximately $173 billion of the $787 billion of ARRA, have been paid out to date, according to the GAO report.  The recipient reporting in question by the media and the GAO only account for $47 billion in stimulus funds so far.  Recipient reported data only covers jobs created or retained, and does take into account “the employment impact on materials suppliers (“indirect” jobs) or on the local community (“induced” jobs), according to the GAO. 

Regional Workforce Collaboration

CMAP Economic Recovery Update (11-12-09)
View the latest regional Economic Recovery Update, produced by CMAP in partnership with the Regional ARRA Coordinating Council (RACC). Be watching for it every other Wednesday, and click here to sign up for CMAP email updates.

Newsletter coming out this Thursday

In respect for Veterans Day, the latest Economic Recovery Update will come out this Thursday, November 12 instead of on Wednesday. The next newsletter will come out on Wednesday, November 25.

Building a green economy with stimulus funds
Creating green jobs and building a green economy that will all be sustainable years down the road is a major aspect of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA).  The act aims to accomplish this feat throughout a range of programs, from workforce training for green jobs to grants for energy efficiency strategies to support for renewable energy firms.  Approximately $80 billion of ARRA funds deal with energy and the environment, according to “Recovery Through Retrofit.”  With significant funding for weatherization, energy efficiency and conservation projects, green job training, and the State’s energy plan, there is an important opportunity to jumpstart a greener future.  Now is a better time than ever to learn more about the green stimulus with new greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting requirements, a wealth of valuable online resources, and a series of local and national reports describing the importance on the green stimulus.  CMAP created a resource guide on stimulus funds designated towards building a green economy and creating green jobs, which includes a graph and chart to show how much money is available nationally through the stimulus related to building a green economy, as well as how the stimulus money for such programs gets to the region.

Mapping transportation projects
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) created a new website to map and track stimulus projects.  This Geographic Information System (GIS) site displays funding amounts and lists projects down to the county and congressional district in the following DOT operating administrations:

• Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
• Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
• Transit Administration (FTA)
• Railroad Administration (FRA)
• Administration (MARAD)
• Office of the Secretary (OST)

Full rollout of recipient reporting now online
Want to see how recipients of stimulus funds are spending their money and how many jobs are being created or saved by stimulus funds?  Full recipient data from prime and sub-recipients of ARRA funds of $25,000 or more are now online at Recovery.gov, where the stimulus can be tracked down to the zip code on a project-by-project basis.  A total of 130,362 reports were filed by recipients throughout October for stimulus loans (607 reports), contracts (13,080 reports), and grants (116,675 reports), according to Recovery.gov.  Reports include information on the amount of stimulus funds received by each recipient, funds expended, a description and location of projects, and how many jobs were created or saved by the funds.  In Illinois, more than 24,000 jobs were created or saved, and nationally approximately 640,000 jobs were created or saved by stimulus funds, as reported by recipients.  Keep in mind, recipient reporting is currently based on $160 billion of the total $787 billion in the ARRA and does not take into account any jobs that were indirectly saved or created thanks to stimulus funds.  The next reporting period for recipients of stimulus funds will begin on January 1, 2010.

Decoding the numbers and maps based on recipient reports can be difficult.  Thankfully, there are a wealth of government and non-governmental resources to help understand the progress of ARRA in real-life terms. In addition, CMAP will soon be expanding our analyses of the stimulus, using this data to provide regional summaries and evaluation of spending for transportation, housing programs, workforce development, energy, and weatherization.  The following resources and recent reports provide helpful and interesting information for those interested in better understanding the impacts thus far:

• Recovery Act in Action:  Recipient Reports on Jobs
  This paper, released by the Office of the Vice President, explains with more in-depth information how jobs were reportedly created or saved in the context of the entire $787 billion in stimulus funds.
• ProPublica’s Unofficial Guide to Recovery.gov
  ProPublica analyses Recovery.gov’s recently published data in terms of jobs, need, transparency, equity, investments, and waste, fraud and abuse.
• President Obama’s Weekly Address
  Obama’s weekly address for the week of October 23, 2009 focuses on the jobs created and strengthening of the economy as related to the work of the stimulus.
• Stimulus Jobs Check:  Are They For Real?
  CBS Evening News visited both California and Illinois on Friday, October 30 to evaluate the validity of reported jobs that were created or saved by the stimulus.  Though the outlook was grim from inside a California school, news was a bit brighter from inside Chicago’s Ba Le Vietnamese Bakery.
• Stimulus gave state 16,000 school, highway jobs
  The Chicago Tribune provided an insightful analysis of recipient reporting as it pertains to the state of Illinois. Of jobs saved and created in Illinois, the majority were in the education sector, according to the article.

CMAP Economic Recovery Update (10-28-09) 
View the latest regional Economic Recovery Update, produced by CMAP in partnership with the Regional ARRA Coordinating Council (RACC).  Be watching for it every other Wednesday, and click here to sign up for CMAP email updates.

Creating a Chicago Regional Building Energy Efficiency System
The Center for Neighborhood Technology, a Regional ARRA Coordinating Council (RACC) member, published a new report, “Creating a Chicago Regional Building Energy Efficiency System .”  The report details short- and long-term opportunities for the metropolitan Chicago region to bring all commercial and residential buildings up to 21st Century energy efficiency standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save money.  In the report, CNT proposes a two-track process of identifying funding and then creating/designing a network or institution to carry on energy efficiency work over the long term.  ARRA funding can be wisely used to "jumpstart the creation of a market and infrastructure for accomplishing [energy efficiency]," and financing from utilities and others can help sustain this work over the long term, according to the report.  CNT’s own LEED Platinum office building demonstrates how energy efficient retrofits can be a good investment.

Learn more about CMAP’s work related to the stimulus
Want to learn more about the work CMAP does in response to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)?  We have posted a new flyer describing CMAP’s coordinating role and how we are responding to the Recovery Act.  This includes our transportation committee’s review of shovel-ready transportation projects;  our regional consortium proposal to the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2);  and our work to provide helpful information on updates and implementation regarding the stimulus through this Recovery blog and our twice-monthly Economic Recovery Update email newsletters.