In order to comply with new transparency requirements under the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, state governments across the
country are scrambling to report to the public how they spend recovery
dollars. Unfortunately, no existing state government Web sites that are
accounting for the recovery funds report the number of jobs created by
private contractors. Without such data, the sites are close to
meaningless.
Fortunately, Oregon is leading an effort to require contractors to
report the number of jobs they create, as well as the hours worked and
wages received by their employees. These proposed requirements would
ensure Oregonians' tax money actually goes toward creating quality
jobs.
PORTLAND, Ore. (NNPA) - Rep. Chip Shields (D-Portland) this week
introduced a bipartisan bill that would provide oversight of how
state-chartered banks are spending money disbursed through the Troubled
Assets Relief Program (TARP).
The move comes at the same time another new bill would create a
statewide “stimulus czar” to oversee the influx of money expected from
President Barack Obama’s economic plan.
If passed, Shields’ House Bill 2784 would convene a bipartisan
group of Oregon state senators and representatives, as well as members
of the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services and
representatives of the financial industry, to provide oversight and
evaluate the need for regulation of operations of financial
institutions licensed, certified or chartered in this state that
receive funds from the TARP program.
Salem, OR — Amidst renewed calls from the Obama administration
for accountability from private contractors on the federal level, the
Oregon State House of Representatives is considering a bill that would
far outstrip the contractor accountability provisions maintained by any
state governments to date.
This Monday at 8am, leading transparency experts from the national
Coalition for an Accountable Recovery (CAR) will testified before the
Oregon House Business and Labor Committee in support of the bill, HB
2037, which would require private contractors in Oregon to disclose the
number of employees and the wages, they pay. This is especially
important with the federal government requiring transparency on jobs
created through the $6.48 billion in federal funds set aside for Oregon
under the recovery plan.
