Senate Stimulus Bill (Full Text)

Updated on February 8

The compromise Senate stimulus bill has been entered into the congressional record. It's not available yet as a pdf because it's still being printed and bound. But by reading through the record, you can get an early look at it.

Follow this link and find the bill about midway through the page, under section SA 570. (The congressional record doesn't open so well in Firefox -- try Internet Explorer or Safari.)

This bill goes on for several hundred pages. When a pdf becomes available, we'll post it here. In the meantime, the Senate Appropriations Committee has released a summary of the new legislation. Here's the link, and we've embedded the document below.

Now, we're asking for your help to dig through the new 'compromise' stimulus. Can you spot any significant differences between the original Senate bill -- available here -- and the compromise? Can you find any examples of wasteful pork-barrel spending or corporate giveaways?

Tell us about anything that stands out by emailing [e-mail], and we'll publish the best finds.

SenateStimSummary - Free Legal Forms

Comments

[chibiusa]

as far as hr 1 so far this is how i see the money going by pages....

Pg 9 – 10 Totaling 223.5 M
(1) ‘‘Department of Agriculture— Inspector General(IG)’’, $22,500,000.
(2) ‘‘Department of Commerce—(IG)’’, $10,000,000.
(3) ‘‘Department of Defense—(IG)’’, $15,000,000.
(4) ‘‘Department of Education—Departmental Management—(IG)’’, $14,000,000.
(5) ‘‘Department of Energy—(IG)’’, $15,000,000.
(6) ‘‘Department of Health and Human Services—Office of the Secretary—(IG)’’, $19,000,000.
(7) ‘‘Department of Homeland Security—(IG)’’, $2,000,000.
(8) ‘‘Department of Housing and Urban Development—Management and Administration—(IG)’’, $15,000,000.
(9) ‘‘Department of the Interior—(IG)’’, $15,000,000.
(10) ‘‘Department of Justice—(IG)’’, $2,000,000.
(11) ‘‘Department of Labor—Departmental Management—(IG)’’, $6,000,000.
(12) ‘‘Department of Transportation—(IG)’’, $20,000,000.
(13) ‘‘Department of Veterans Affairs—(IG)’’, $1,000,000.
(14) ‘‘Environmental Protection Agency—(IG)’’, $20,000,000.
(15) ‘‘General Services Administration—General Activities—(IG)’’, $15,000,000.
(16) ‘‘National Aeronautics and Space Administration—(IG)’’, $2,000,000.
(17) ‘‘National Science Foundation—(IG)’’, $2,000,000.
(18) ‘‘Small Business Administration—(IG)’’, $10,000,000.
(19) ‘‘Social Security Administration—(IG)’’, $2,000,000.
(20) ‘‘Corporation for National and Community Service—(IG)’’, $1,000,000.
‘‘Government Accountability Office—Salaries and Expenses’’ $25,000,000, -- oversite

Pg 11 – 35 Totaling 14 M
appropriated to the Board $14,000,000

pg 35 - 48 Totaling 34.69 B
Title I and II

Pg 48 – 56 Totaling 19.025 B
Title III and IV

interesting ... and a whole lot of money..... I had it broken down more but it was too long....
everyone definately needs to read the stimulus package....
http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/HR1.pdf

[fifthgeneration]

It is obvious that our goverment does not hear us, it is time that we communicate with them via the old fashion way, called snail mail. It is too easy for them to just press the delete button, but if the USPO delivers letters, they have to listen, if everyone you know mails one. So write a letter that you do not agree with what our goverment is doing. Just think what will happen if they get millions of written letters instead of millions of e-mail that can be deleted.

[deminmo]

Did anyone notice that tucked inside the stimulus plan was a "plan"
for assuring that every person in this country has their health information
put on a data base? Now, everyone agrees that good healthcare would
be made better by the doctor accessing information , but do you
want your history available to anyone in the healthcare field? Some info
could be a little more private, and could be more "political".
After everything happening now and in the past 8 years, how could anyone
dismiss even something that sounds like "Big Brother"?

[research]

The Patriot act already allows complete access to your medical records.

[myredslk]

That's true, but doctors still have (limited) autonomy when it comes to individual patient care, because we all do not fit within one single guideline. It is also true that insurance companies will not pay for newer (and many times improved and/or more practical in the particular case) medications, costing patients out of pocket expenses. The healthcare field as well as members (defined as patients) of insurance companies are already at the mercy of insurance companies, we don't need the government making mandates for what I tell our patients "they've never personally met you, they've never personally spoken with you, but they are diagnosing and treating you".

[myredslk]

I am a nurse and my husband a doctor. What scares me isn't so much an Electronic Health Record, because it WILL supply any doctor or hospital you visit with much needed past health information. What scares us is that funding may be cut for medication and technological advances, not to mention Big Brother is going to tell YOUR DOCTOR how to treat YOU. WHAT?!?!? Isn't that what HMO's, especially Blue Cross is for??? Oh, and some day I do plan on being in the elderly class of society. Wow, I need to just suck it up, be old, and die as quickly as possible. You know what, if you have diabetes, heart disease, terminal cancer, or even a wart, just bypass those stupid doctors with years of training and education (not to mention student loan debt that runs somewhere around the total cost of some people's homes). . . just call Daschle, he has ALL the answers.

[cloudslicer]

Well,

For starters the bill says 289 billion, .... so ... where is the remaining 600 billion?

Has anyone been keeping score here:

2007 FED monetary easing ( lets print 2 trillion and see what happens)
2008 stimulus checks
2008 TARP
2008 Bailouts

2009 Stimulus bill

The good news is that the FED,Bush and Obama have created a new bull market!

The bad news is that its in Gold and Silver:

This is a comparison chart of spot gold prices versus the S&P 500. Note that Gold was in a trading range until the FED aggressively cut rates in 2007.

http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=$SPX&p=D&yr=2&mn=0&dy=0&id=p90677020280

[berrycooda]

Could it be that the Stimulus Bill (S.B.) is turned around and

should have the initials (B.S.) instead.....

All we hear is how much is needed for this and that.
Why don't we hear ... how... this is going to get done.

Who is going to get the money and who is going to monitor how
it is being "squandered" and if it gets screwed up is
I'm sorry going to be an adequate response...as usual...

[2naghoti]

I have compiled a list of all the words contained within the text of the package and a count of the number of times the word occurs in the document. The idea is that the more frequently the word is used within the document, the more prevelant the program or initiative and therefor it is likely that more money is allocated to that program or initiative.

The results can be viewed at

http://2009stimuluspackage.blogspot.com/

[Mike949]

I understand that Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions and Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson attempted several times to bring their bipartisan amendment to the floor last week. SA 239 would require local governments and businesses that receive stimulus money to use the federal E-Verify citizenship check system. Unfortunately, Harry Reid would not allow it to come to the floor.

I don't understand why anyone would be against this.

[chelliza]

Being a Nevadan, my guess would be that there are too many voters who are making money by hiring illigals and he doesn't want to upset them. Big casinos, who have a lot of pull around here hire them. The contractors here that do are getting most of the work because they can give lower bids due to lower wage costs. Makes businesses like my husbands suffer, but I don't know if the powers that be here will ever do anything to stop it.

[MaineMike]

I guess people might be OK with it if it were more reliable:

"But opponents to including the electronic verification component are complaining about the relative unreliability of the system and its inability to stop people from using fraudulent IDs to get work authorization."

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9127539

[uvymopkq]

And to many illigals voting.

[ernestterry]

I've been emailing all the senators who support the Stimulus Bill. Here is what I've been saying...

Please reverse support for the stimulus bill.

After review of this bill it only has 12% of it dedicated for true "infrastructure" speeding and most of that occurs one or two years out. The massive bulk of the bill is nothing more than a 30% increase in the federal budget which is way to bloated to begin with, we are bankrupting ourselves and future generations with the unchecked power of spending in Washington.

Please do not be a part of the continued downfall of our nation into bigger and bigger gov't. We already have over 300 billion left in TARP make use of that effectively first and don't be associated with Left's attempt to shamelessly grow gov't.

[chelliza]

You have told us what you said they should NOT do. What were your suggestions for action, especially to help the millions that have lost their jobs? So many out there that have their jobs don't care about those that don't. Prove me wrong and tell me what you suggest be done to help them.

[nicholasjh1]

There seems to be a lot about mortgage bailouts in the bill. I can't tell if it's only for millitary housing owners though.

[VoteOnPaper]

I'm a business owner. I don't need more tax cuts, I need customers!

[rjbIowa]

Well put VoteOnPaper!!!!! I too own a small business.
To Republicans -- a tax cut might put maybe $20 a week in the pocket of people. $20 isn't going to drive them out to spend money. Creating opportunities for people to work, through infrastructure projects that will result in a long term benefit to cities, counties, states, etc. will allow people to feel some sense of security and then they will get out and spend.
To Dems -- watch your ultra liberal leaders who are killing this effort with way too many programs that are not going to create jobs. Some support for those who have lost their jobs or are holding on by a thread is necessary, but Pelosi and others are going to run this into the ground all for their ideological vision of the world. Obama needs to step up and say enough is enough -- let deal with the main issue not the liberal agenda.

[KarenT]

Please call/email the White House, Reid, Pelosi, Congress and tell them to change the Recovery Plan originally written before the Repubs put in 42% tax cuts and defense spending. Encourage them to let the Repubs filibuster. If we move forward with the plan the way it is, the Repubs have had just enough input that if it is successful, they will claim victory; if it fails, they will blame Obama. The tax cuts will make the plan less effective. Obama's original plan was ideal.

[karela]

Well, I can't claim to have read all 4800 posts, but I did read a couple hundred. Didn't find much substantive discussion about the stimulus, so I guess the idea of involving us isn't panning out too well. For my part, I can't find anything under education for head start so that kids have a decent chance for a solid educational beginning. I know that was very important to Obama and to the future of the country. Also very concerned that so little is being spent on clean energy. If it was up to me, and if we had to hack and shave, I'd say to put a significant portion of the total into that because it creates jobs that won't go away and gives us the best chance to decrease the $700 billion that we spend on foreign oil each year. If we weren't paying that much money out, we'd have a better chance of getting out from under the debt. $150 billion would build the smart energy grid for the country. A ninety two mile on each side solar cell system in the Nevada desert would supply all the electricity the country needs, including plug in cars, if we had the smart grid. Also not happy about not giving enough to the states to weather the storm and not enough for food stamps. People are going to suffer for that.

[lj9283]

Just a few of the cuts from HR1 to the Senate Bill:
Smart Grid" or "Efficient Electricity Grid" cut: $11 Billion - HR1 down to 4.5 Billion

Senate Bill Health Care Expenditures went from HR1 - $29 Billion to Senate Bill $14 Billion.

GSA Federal Building Weatherization (backlog of $8.4 Billion in needed projects): $6.7 billion - HR1 down to $2.5 Billion in the Senate Bill.

Construction on Public Lands and Parks cut: $3.1 billion HR1 down to 830 million in the Senate Bill

State Fiscal Relief for Schools went down: HR1 had $79 Billion to help keep schools open, The Senate bill has cut that to $39 Billion.

[chelliza]

Seems like Republicans feel that we don't need educated citizens, we just need armed forces.

[glockman]

Dig through it, you say? Sure, all we'll need is a back hoe, several tons of dynamite, some det. cord...

[fredamae]

And WE criticize Our Lawmakers for Not having All the info RE; Any Legislation issue at the tip of their tongue? It is taking an Involvement from the Whole country to sift thru this.

just a suggestion...try and Take a section, or one issue/item Important to you ie: Unemployment Benefits...read through it and do a comparison, report back, done :)

[rucognizant]

Gee! What an intelligent and thoughtful discussion about the merits of the Senate stimulus (SPENDING) bill.
WHAT WAS on TV last night?

[abby4ever]

To CostaDelbarto:

I apologize for asking you if you are Neo. I misread something another poster said and got mixed up.

abby

@:[

[CostaDelBarto]

Hey thanks Abby. It's nice to know it wasn't something I wrote.

Also, I like your hat :)

[abby4ever]

Nothing at all that you wrote, I simply read a post too fast. Mea culpa. I remember you now...

Have you got a hat?