by
Joan Trombetti, Writer | January 28, 2009
The $819 billion stimulus package that House Democrats just passed contains $37 billion for technology in three main areas including $20 billion to computerize medical records, $11 billion to create smarter electrical grids and $6 billion to expand high-speed Internet access in rural and underserved communities.
According to a study by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, this could result in 900,000 jobs in 2009 in technical fields.
About $111 billion of the spending portion of the bill is dedicated to health care. The lion's share of the health care package is aimed at funding state-run Medicaid programs, including expanding eligibility to the unemployed.
The Senate plans to take up the bill next week.
Track the bill via the Library of Congress at:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:h.r.00001:
Once the bill becomes law, its spending provisions can be tracked at http://recovery.gov.
