Unprecedented Billions Worthy of Audit

The 111th Congress has enacted, and President Barack H. Obama has signed into law, HR 1, the graspingly entitled American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ("ERROR" - whoops, should read "ARRA"). In the history of the United States of America and of every other sovereignty which is, or ever was, on the face of the earth, the billions of dollars in the so-called "Stimulus" appropriations of the 111th Congress never have been equaled - or, indeed, remotely grasped. The cost of HR 1 as enacted is $787 billion, as calculated by the (usually objective and competent) Congressional Budget Office. Others have calculated the total cost 2009 - 2019 were the expenditures to become permanent at $3.27 trillion.

The United States Government Accountability Office ("GAO"), until July 7, 2004 named the General Accounting Office (dating from the days when its function was more strictly solely accounting), is an independent Federal agency, founded in June 1921, populated by career personnel, noted for its objectivity and thoroughness or near-thoroughness. The title of its top official is that of Comptroller General. At the moment that office is vacant; Hon. Gene L. Dodaro is Acting Comptroller General - with, of course, the functional authority of the office. In a rather purist and technical sense, GAO is not part of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government and arguably, if anywhere, is part of the Legislative Branch.

There is no ARRA requirement for audit. To those of us who are neither economists nor accountants, much less to others who are one or the other, it would appear elementary that ARRA expenditures should be subject to audit, phenomenal though that task would be.

Senator A. Mitchell (Mitch) McConnell (R-KY) has written the Acting Comptroller General requesting audit. It is unfortunate that the request is not bipartisan but better, a request from one keen and courageous mind than no request at all.

Some excerpts and comment from the McConnell letter indicate the thrust of the request and the Senator’s bona fide concern.

The Senator expresses deep concern "that oversight will stop at the [S]tate level once a governor designates the [F]ederal money to be spent at the local or municipal level . . . Tracking money only to the [S]tate level is insufficient . . . Therefore, I request that GAO track expenditures to the project level and report on a bimonthly basis, as part of the 13 mandates . . . in ARRA."

The Senator propounds five questions.

" . . . [T]o what extent are Governors assuring that Federal spending does not supplant [S]tate spending?

How is the Administration measuring . . . effectiveness . . . in job creation?

To what extent is the Recovery Act Accountability and Transparency Board tracking . . . spending . . . sole-source contracts, and how much of it circumvents contracting laws and regulations?

To what extent do Davis-Bacon requirements in [ARRA] increase the cost of each project?

What are some of the key Federal regulations that may delay project starts and therefore delay job creation?"

GAO surely will have its hands full - and well may need additional appropriations from Congress - thoroughly or even reasonably thoroughly to audit. Astronomical sums distributed rather quickly around the country inevitably invite both honestly confused disbursements as well as the politically motivated chicanery of misuse.