State's First ARRA Reporting Complete Detailing Funding, Jobs Data

NASHVILLE – Tennessee has successfully met its first federal reporting requirements for funds that have flowed to or through the state under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The Recovery Act is providing states with more than $246 billion of a total $787 billion made available to create and retain jobs, invest in infrastructure and speed economic recovery. Tennessee was allocated a total of $5.6 billion; the state reported on $214.9 million spent by the state through Recovery Act grants through September 30, 2009. 

 

“Our Recovery Act team and state agencies worked literally hundreds of hours toward an unprecedented accomplishment, with no additional staff hired to handle the reporting process,” Deputy Governor John Morgan said. “It’s important to remember the Recovery Act is a two-year program and this is just the first reporting period. Additional reporting on the use of Recovery Act funds will occur quarterly going forward.”

 

The state transmitted a total of 310 project reports for the period ending September 30, 2009, via FederalReporting.gov, the central government-wide data collection system. Of those, 258 were for transportation projects alone. The reports represent grants totaling $214.9 million received by 15 state agencies. The reports reflect 7,710.9 jobs created and retained through September 30 through these funds.

 

A major component of the Recovery Act is the requirement for an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability so people can see how the funds are being spent. Specific reporting requirements have been set for government agencies and recipients of Recovery funds to measure progress. 

 

Federal agencies, prime recipients and sub-recipients are required to submit data within 10 days after the end of each calendar quarter for grants, loans, and federally awarded contracts under the Recovery Act. The first reporting period ended on September 30 and reports were submitted by recipients, including states, between October 1 and October 10, 2009. The next reports will be submitted in January 2010.

 

The Section 1512 reporting process includes 99 different data elements. The number of data elements reported per program depends on the fields applicable to the program and varies based on the number of sub-awards and vendors, if any, under that program. The state of Tennessee chose to centralize its reporting to minimize the likelihood of duplications in the data or non-compliance with federal requirements. 

 

The FederalReporting.gov Web site works in conjunction with the Recovery.gov Web site. The data submitted to FederalReporting.gov will be reviewed and validated by the funding/awarding agencies from October 11-29 and then those reports and visual representations of the information will be available to the public via Recovery.gov. 

 

Recipient contract data will be published on Recovery.gov October 15 and recipient grant and loan data will be published on the site on October 30. The data can be viewed online or downloaded in XML format – a standard structure for the transfer of data – for those who want to create their own reports.

 

The reporting by the State of Tennessee and other states represents only part of the recovery picture. Funds awarded directly to non-state agencies will have been reported by those recipients and their data will also be published on Recovery.gov.