Update: Stimulus Bill

As everyone knows, H.R. 1 was signed into law this past week. The full text of the final stimulus bill is available here. Readers might be interested to learn that the $1 billion “Prevention and Wellness Fund,” discussed here, did find its way back into the final version.

Margo Wootan, Director of Nutrition Policy and founder of NANA’s nutrition policy initiatives, sent out a CSPI Action Alert email thanking everyone who lobbied for these provisions. As she noted, the final Stimulus package also includes an additional $100 million for the National School Lunch Program. It has a provision giving priority in the distribution of the funds “to schools purchasing equipment for the purpose of offering more healthful foods and meals, in accordance with standards established by the Secretary.”

For months, mayors across the country have been scrambling, as we’ve all read in our local newspapers and heard on our television news, to garner as much of that free money for their projects as possible. The U.S. Conference of Mayors compiled a list of their stimulus projects and met with the Administration last week to present their formal requests. To see exactly how political leaders hope to spend our money, we can examine their list of projects, listed by state, here. Each of us can then decide for ourselves how many we think will stimulate economic development in our city and state.