Stimulus Oversight

Rob Brodsky is reporting that the White House is requiring agencies to have in place by today senior-level officials to oversee the spending of stimulus funding to make sure it's being done appropriately. This is a laudable effort, but it also seems like one that underscores the fact that all of Obama's agency heads aren't in place yet.

In an ideal world, this would be a great first test of agency heads. If they were the ones accountable for oversight, in conjunction with other officials, of course, they'd have to dig deeply into the operations of their new agencies, getting acquainted with their personnel and programs in the process. They'd also have to show immediately that they can both follow contracting and ethics rules while moving money quickly and effectively.

But instead, there are a lot of acting agency heads in place. Presumably, those are the folks who will be picking the officials to do oversight. Neither of those people is really there to defend the President's policy priorities or his ethics ones. It seems like a situation that's guaranteed to produce results the White House isn't thrilled with. But since they don't have their agency leaders in place, it's kind of what they're stuck with.