A Smart Recovery Act Move

By Robert Brodsky

In a somewhat surprising announcement today, the office of Vice President Joe Biden publicly identified more than 170 projects that federal or state agencies had hoped to advance with Recovery Act funds but which were subsequently modified or cancelled.

The projects, some of which are way too obvious and silly to have ever gotten off the ground, are enough to give a muckraker like myself goose bumps. But, give the administration credit for nipping them in the bud before they were snared by the Recovery Board or its army of citizen inspector generals.

Here is a sampling of projects that did not meet the administration's standards:

-A plan by the Department of the Interior to use funds to purchase a supplemental freezer, one use of which would have been to freeze fish sperm, at the Gavin's Point National Fish Hatchery was halted.

-Defense Department projects to steam clean bird droppings from a building and repair the roof of a fast food franchise on a military base were cancelled.

-A state Department of Transportation planned to use funds to resurface a road. Subsequent to that project, an EPA remediation project was planned that would have multiple heavy trucks hauling waste across the newly laid road - most likely severely damaging the road in the process. The DOT project has been rescheduled and will be reinstituted after the EPA project is complete.

-A GSA proposal to repair and rehabilitate the East Wing of the White House was halted

-Proposals by the USDA to use Rural Development Business and Industry loans for a ski resort, a gas station, a luxury spa and inn and to refinance a Rite Aid were all cancelled.