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ProPublica October 05, 2009

Federal agencies spent some $4.5 billion in stimulus money over the last week, and obligated another $4.5 billion, according to our updated Stimulus Progress Bar [1]. But the progress is uneven. Winners for the week include the Treasury Department, which nearly doubled the amount of stimulus dollars it’s paid out, from $646 million to $1.2 billion; and NASA, a slow stimulus spender [2] which increased the money it’s paid out by a third, from $18 million to $27 million.

Near the back of the pack was the Department of Transportation, which has reported essentially no new spending since the last time we checked, a week ago. But the prize for slowest spending last week might go to the Department of Veterans Affairs, which actually reported a decrease in the amount of stimulus money it’s paid out. Last week, the department had paid out some $532 million, according to Recovery.gov; as of today, the figure was just $497 million. We’ve called both departments to ask what happened; we’ll post a response once (if) one arrives.

Check out our Stimulus Progress Bar for details [1].