Good news about the government? Yes, there is.
Look, folks, the Obama Administration promised responsible and transparent stimulus spending. And in a June 30 report that no one heard about, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concludes that DOT's TIGER team is upholding that promise.
The GAO says our TIGER team got it right. And, I think people should know about it.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act set aside $1.5 billion in discretionary grants for transportation projects. These grants to states, local governments, and transit agencies must be awarded competitively for capital investments in transportation that will have a significant impact on the nation, a metropolitan area, or a region.
In May, DOT's TIGER team published criteria for assessing applications for these grants. The GAO thoroughly reviewed our process for developing those criteria and found that we had done a good job.
The GAO praised the TIGER team for:
- Communicating important elements about the grants
- Selecting criteria that support merit-based awards
- Following transportation infrastructure investment principles
Whether government does too much or too little--that's a political debate. That the folks on the TIGER team did their job well--that's a plain fact I'm proud to share.
We sure are hoping for a transportation infrastructure investment here in South Mississippi to repair our passenger rail stations and platforms...standing idle since Katrina
Posted by: Allan Thomas | July 11, 2009 at 03:31 AM