Recovery Act recipient reporting has received a great deal of attention in the media, and while some of this coverage has been critical (reporting on non-existent congressional districts or ZIP codes, unreliable job creation numbers, etc.), many news articles portray comprehensive oversight of the act because of transparency requirements in the law. However, approximately two-thirds of the spending in the Recovery Act bypasses these requirements, leading to a dearth of information about how the money is being spent. As time passes and Recovery Act spending continues, this lack of data is becoming more apparent, as highlighted by a recent Internal Revenue Service (IRS) report showing that millions of dollars in Recovery Act tax breaks are vulnerable to tax fraud.

On Nov. 17, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that some 14,700 taxpayers had taken part in its recently concluded tax amnesty program by coming forward to report previously undisclosed income hiding in foreign bank accounts. The figure represents a near doubling of the original estimate of 7,500 taxpayers the IRS provided at the end of the voluntary disclosure program. Credited in part for the success of the tax amnesty program is the Obama administration's larger emphasis on tax enforcement. With a beefed up IRS enforcement budget, new tax treaties with countries that once acted as tax havens, and stricter tax haven legislation in the works on Capitol Hill, the U.S. is starting to get serious about international tax enforcement.

The House Budget Committee held a hearing on June 24 on the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) Act of 2009, which was recently introduced by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD). During the hearing, House members focused on the enforcement mechanisms in PAYGO, the significant exemptions granted under the proposed legislation, and whether the bill is the appropriate method to reinstate fiscal discipline in Congress.

The House and Senate each passed their budget resolutions on April 2, mostly along party lines, before breaking for a two-week spring recess. The resolutions delineate approximately $3.6 trillion in spending for Fiscal Year 2010 and track closely with the major proposals outlined by President Barack Obama, including estimates of historic budget deficits. Those deficits could become significantly worse due to the adoption of an amendment in the Senate that calls for further cuts to the estate tax, benefiting the richest families in the country.