A Readable Summary of the Stimulus / Jobs Bill that House/Senate Passed...(Open Left)

[KoKo]

by: Chris Bowers
Thu Feb 12, 2009 at 13:07


In the extended entry, I have re-produced a readable version of the stimulus summary from Speaker Pelosi's office. I have found the other summaries floating around the web almost impossible to read, thus making a dense document even more opaque. It is still pretty long, but hopefully this shines a little light.

Summary in the extended entry.
Chris Bowers :: A Readable Summary of the Stimulus / Jobs Bill
The legislation being drafted contains targeted efforts in:

* Clean, Efficient, American Energy
* Transforming our Economy with Science and Technology
* Lowering Health Care Costs and Ensuring Broader Coverage
* Investing in Education for the 21st Century
* Modernizing Roads, Bridges, Transit and Waterways
* Tax Cuts for Middle-Class Families and American Businesses
* Helping Workers Hurt by the Recession
* Providing Strong Accountability Measures.

Following are highlights, based on preliminary information, of some key provisions in each of these areas.

Clean, Efficient, American Energy: To put people back to work today and reduce our dependence on foreign oil tomorrow, we will increase renewable energy production and renovate public buildings to make them more energy efficient.

* Smart Grid/Advanced Battery Technology/Energy Efficiency
o Provides a total of $30 billion for such initiatives as a new, smart power grid, advanced battery technology, and energy efficiency measures, which will create nearly 500,000 jobs.
o Transforms the nation's electricity systems through the Smart Grid Investment Program to modernize the electricity grid to make it more efficient and reliable.
o Supports U.S. development of advanced vehicle batteries and battery systems through loans and grants so that America can lead the world in transforming the way automobiles are powered.
o Helps state and local governments make investments in innovative best practices to achieve greater energy efficiency and reduce energy usage.
o Spurs energy efficiency and renewable energy R&D.

* Tax Incentives to Spur Energy Savings and Green Jobs
o Provides $20 billion in tax incentives for renewable energy and energy efficiency over the next 10 years.
o Includes a three-year extension of the production tax credit (PTC) for electricity derived from wind (through 2012) and for electricity derived from biomass, geothermal, hydropower, landfill gas, waste-to-energy, and marine facilities (through 2013).
o Provides grants of up to 30 percent of the cost of building a new renewable energy facility to address current renewable energy credit market concerns.
o Promotes energy-efficient investments in homes by extending and expanding tax credits through 2010 for purchases such as new furnaces, energy-efficient windows and doors, or insulation.
o Provides a tax credit for families that purchase plug-in hybrid vehicles of up to $7,500 to spur the next generation of American cars.
o Includes clean renewable energy bonds for State and local governments.
o Establishes a new manufacturing investment tax credit for investment in advanced energy facilities, such as facilities that manufacture components for the production of renewable energy, advanced battery technology, and other innovative next-generation green technologies.

* Landmark Energy Savings at Home
o Provides $5 billion for landmark provisions to improve the energy efficiency of more than 1 million modest-income homes through weatherization.
o This will save modest-income families on average $350 per year on their heating and air conditioning bills.

* Repairing Public Housing and Making Key Energy Efficiency Retrofits to HUD-Assisted Housing
o Provides a total of $6.3 billion for increasing energy efficiency in federally-supported housing programs.
o Specifically, establishes a new program to upgrade HUD-sponsored low-income housing (elderly, disabled, and Section 8) to increase energy efficiency, including new insulation, windows, and frames.
o Also invests in energy efficiency upgrades in public housing, including new windows, furnaces, and insulation to improve living conditions for residents and lower the cost of operating these facilities.

Transform our Economy with Science and Technology: To secure America's role as a world leader in a competitive global economy, we are renewing America's investments in basic research and development, in training students for an innovation economy, and in deploying new technologies into the marketplace. This will help businesses in every community succeed in a global economy.

* Investing in Scientific Research (More than $15 Billion)
o Provides $3 billion for the National Science Foundation, for basic research in fundamental science and engineering - which spurs discovery and innovation.
o Provides $1.6 billion for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, which funds research in such areas as climate science, biofuels, high-energy physics, nuclear physics and fusion energy sciences - areas crucial to our energy future.
o Provides $400 million for the Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to support high-risk, high-payoff research into energy sources and energy efficiency in collaboration with industry.
o Provides $580 million for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, including the Technology Innovation Program and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
o Provides $8.5 billion for NIH, including expanding good jobs in biomedical research to study diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, cancer, and heart disease.
o Provides $1 billion for NASA, including $400 million to put more scientists to work doing climate change research.
o Provides $1.5 billion for NIH to renovate university research facilities and help them compete for biomedical research grants.

* Extending Broadband Services
o Provides $7 billion for extending broadband services to underserved communities across the country, so that rural and inner-city businesses can compete with any company in the world.
o For every dollar invested in broadband, the economy sees a ten-fold return on that investment.

Lower Health Care Costs and Ensure Broader Coverage: Affordable and quality health care is key to strong economic growth. We are bringing our health care system into the 21st century with information technology, which will save billions of dollars, and are taking key steps to ensure broader coverage in this recession.

* Modernizing Health Care System to Lower Costs and Save Lives
o Provides $19 billion to accelerate adoption of Health Information Technology (HIT) systems by doctors and hospitals, in order to modernize the health care system, save billions of dollars, reduce medical errors and improve quality.
o Strengthens Federal privacy and security law to protect personally identifiable health information from misuse and abuse.
o Creates hundreds of thousands of jobs - many in high-tech sectors - by promoting the adoption of HIT.
o CBO estimates that this proposal will generate billions of dollars in "system-wide" savings.

* Protecting Health Care Coverage for Millions through Medicaid
o Protects health care coverage for millions of Americans during this recession, by providing an estimated $87 billion over the next two years in additional federal matching funds to help states maintain their Medicaid programs in the face of massive state budget shortfalls.
o Helps states avoid cutting eligibility for Medicaid and scaling back the health care services covered.

* Providing Health Insurance for Unemployed Workers
o Currently, laid-off workers, under the COBRA program, can buy into their former employer's health insurance. But the premiums are often prohibitively expensive. In order to help people maintain their health coverage, the bill provides a 60% subsidy for COBRA premiums for up to 9 months.

* Investing in Prevention & Comparative Effectiveness Research
o Provides $1 billion for a new Prevention and Wellness Fund. Studies have shown that investing in prevention can lower overall health care costs by billions of dollars.
o Provides $1.1 billion for comparative effectiveness research, to help patients and doctors determine the effectiveness of different treatments. This research will improve the quality of care.

Education for the 21st Century: Economists tell us that strategic investments in education are one of the best ways to help America become more productive and competitive. This bill will make key investments to help states avoid teacher layoffs and other damaging education cuts in this recession, help make college more affordable, and make other key education investments.

MUCH MORE...GO OVER TO THE SITE...GOOD READ PARSING LEGISLATION at.............

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=11577

[appal_jack]

1. So the nuke subsidies DID get stripped out

If so, I am genuinely heartened: subsidies and incentives for renewables and efficiency, but nothing for nuclear or coal is a big WIN in my book.

-app