Obama signed the Stimulus Bill (a.k.a. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) on Tuesday and it is now officially Public Law 111-005. Look for it to be published online soon, here, at GPOAccess.gov or FDsys.gpo.gov. 
President Obama has launched a new website, Recovery.Gov "that lets you, the taxpayer, figure out where the money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is going. The money is being distributed by Federal agencies, and soon you'll be able to see where it's going -- to which states, to which congressional districts, even to which Federal contractors. As soon as we are able to, we'll display that information visually in maps, charts, and graphics."
Today is President's Day, which commemorates the birthdays of George Washington (February 22) and Abrahame Lincoln (February 12).
You can learn more about the life of Lincoln in my previous post, but to learn about George Washington, visit the Library of Congress "Today in History" page which includes primary source historical documents such as his inaugural speech, and the National Archive's page on Washington, which includes some primary source historical documents about the establishment of commemorating Washington's birthday.
And you can learn about all 44 of our Presidents at Whitehouse.gov'sPresidents page.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed by Congress on February 13th. After it was passed by the House, it was passed by the Senate with 60 Ayes and 38 Nays.
Before the President signs the act into law, it will be posted online for at least 5 days for public viewing and comment. Check it out and make your voice heard!
To view the complete legislative history of the act, visit Thomas.gov or read more about it at readthestimulus.org.
President's Weekly Address on the Passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act:
For more videos from the President and the White House, see their official YouTube channel.
Our 16th President Abraham Lincoln turned 200 years old on February 12th. There is a new government website called The Lincoln Bicentennial: Live the Legacy that contains information and schedules of events and exhibits commemorating Lincoln all over the country.
Also, the Library of Congress has an interesting exhibit entitled The Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana and you can view the objects in 3-D on their website.
The House of Representatives passed the final conference report on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act by a vote of 246-183 (183 against = all the House Republicans and 7 Democrats), sending it to the Senate for one "final test" before it gets signed into law by the President.
The news story as of late has been where the Census Bureau will reside in the federal government organization - will it report directly to the White House? Or should it remain reporting to the Secretary of Commerce? For more information, read "Why Obama Wants Control of the Census: Counting Citizens is a Powerful Political Tool" and "Obama shifts Census oversight, triggering angry protest by Republicans". Some say the move could influence legislative redistricting, which is shaped by Census counts.
This seems like a great topic for a research paper! Hopefully more articles in databases will unfold as this issue comes to light. For now, you can check out sources that deal with the underlying issues of this news story - that of the Census and redistricting.
In your local library's catalog, try these different keyword searches:
census redistricting
census apportionment
Or try the following subject term searches:
Election districts--United States--States
Proportional representation--United States--States
Gerrymandering--United States
Check your local library's catalog or use the Catalog of Government Publications to find these recommended government document titles and locate them at your local Depository Library:
Y 4.G 74/7:D 34/3
Apportionment in the balance: a look into the progress of the 2010 decennial census : hearing before the Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census of the Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives, One Hundred Ninth Congress, second session, March 1, 2006
Implications for minority voters in 2001: report on the implications for minority voter opportunities if corrected census data had been used for the post-1990 redistricting.
Measuring America: the decennial censuses from 1790 to 2000
C 3.252:4/4
History and organization, Bureau of the Census
And here are some recommended books to find in your local library's catalog or use worldcat to find them in a nearby library:
HA201.12 .C49 2002
Changing U.S. Demographics by Norris Smith.
JK1341 .M66 2001
Bushmanders & bullwinkles: how politicians manipulate electronic maps and census data to win elections by Mark S. Monmonier
HA37.U55 C66 2000
Encyclopedia of the U.S. census
For more website information, go to USA.gov and use their search box to find government websites on thistopic. I typed in census (redistricting OR apportionment) and also tried the search census obama commerce and got over hundreds of results from various government websites and PDF files/articles.
Lastly, check out FDsys.gpo.gov which is a new government information database (it's slowly growing and will replace gpoaccess.gov by mid-2009 as your portal for all things government information related!). Enter the search census (redistricting OR apportionment) in the search box and you will get a huge amount of results such as Congressional bills, laws, etc. However, to narrow it to just the United States, on the left hand side menus where it says "Location", click on any of the "Narrow Your Search" sub-topic links to lessen your list of results. Click on any of the result links to open the full-text PDF file or click on "more information" for details about the document and related documents.
Need government information on HIV/AIDS in American children? Here are some tips and sources to get you started:
In your local library's catalog, try these different keyword searches (if there is an option to limit your search to government documents only, then do so):
AIDS Youth
AIDS Children
HIV Youth
HIV Children
You may get some results having to do with Africa or other countries, but ignore those if you want to focus on the United States only. Or you could try adding the phrase “United States” or America to the above search terms.
For more accurate results, try this subject term search: "AIDS (Disease) in children" in your local library's catalog.
Check your local library's catalog or use the Catalog of Government Publications to find these titles and locate them at your local Depository Library. Here are some government documents I recommend:
ED 1.8:AC 7/988
AIDS and the education of our children: a guide for parents and teachers
HE 1.2:P 34
Final report : Secretary's Work Group on Pediatric HIV Infection and Disease
HE 20.3002:C 43/7
Your child and children with HIV infection
HE 20.9102:C 43/3
Report of the Surgeon General's Workshop on Children with HIV Infection and Their Families : AIDS
PREX 1.2:96-024985
Youth & HIV/AIDS: an American agenda : a report to the President
For the most up-to-date information, go to USA.gov and use their search box to find government websites on your topic. I typed in AIDS HIV Children and got over 99 results from various government websites and PDF files/articles from nih.gov, etc. Here are some webpages I recommend:
HIV/AIDS Among Youth, CDC Fact Sheet
HIV Infections in Infants and Children, NIH Fact Sheet
USAID Reports on Children and HIV/AIDS
Also check out a list of websites about AIDS at GPO's Browse Topics' AIDS page or check out the government websites on HIV/AIDS that I bookmarked for you to use.
You can also get some good statistics and clues to further statistical sources about children with HIV/AIDS in the U.S. from the Statistical Abstract online and click on the left side menu button “Health & Nutrition” then click on “Health Conditions, Disease” and then there will be a list of files to various statistics. Click on "178 - Estimated Number of Persons Living With Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) by Year and Selected Characteristics". The file has stats for those under the age of 13 that have AIDS in the U.S.
Lastly, check out FDsys.gpo.gov which is a new government information database (it's slowly growing and will replace gpoaccess.gov by mid-2009 as your portal for all things government information related!). Enter the search AIDS children in the search box and you will get a huge amount of results such as Congressional bills, laws, etc. However, to narrow it to just the United States, on the left hand side menus where it says "Location", click on the link that says "United States" to narrow your list of results. You can limit your results list in other ways too, such as date published, Government author, etc. Click on any of the result links to open the full-text PDF file or click on "more information" for details about the document and related documents.
As a follow up to my earlier post, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has been passed by the Senate. You can see the votes and more information at Govtrack.us here.
The transcript is available on Whitehouse.gov (kudos to Sonnet @ UNO for the heads up!).
February is Black History Month. Check out my friend's blog post about the various government info she compiled: Black History Month Resources.
My favorite is the AfricanAmericanHistoryMonth.gov page. Their theme this year is "The Quest for Black Citizenship in the Americas".
Be sure to check out our growing collection of tagged government websites about African Americans too!%27+-+www_africanamericanhistorymonth_gov.png)
Here it is...in all its economic recovery glory. (Let's hope). It was passed by the House of Representatives on January 28th. It was introduced to the Senate and will be voted on soon. Will it pass? Will it become law? Wait and see...(UPDATE: It passed!)
H.R. 1
111th Congress
1st Session
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
"Making supplemental appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy efficiency and science, assistance to the unemployed, and State and local fiscal stabilization, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009, and for other purposes..."
You can also view it at OpenCongress (H.R. 1) and track it as it goes through the Senate (S. 1).
UPDATE: GovTrack.us has a page where you can view comparisons of the text of H.R. 1, the stimulus bill, at different stages in its legislative history - including the House version (as passed) and the current Senate version (amendment 570).
