Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

In the House, Democratic leaders had called the legislation “the first crucial step in a concerted effort to create and save 3 to 4 million jobs, jumpstart our economy, and begin the process of transforming it for the 21st century.” The compromise bill includes $32.8 billion for developing and installing renewable energy projects, $26.9 billion for energy efficiency work on homes and government buildings, and $19 billion for green transportation projects.

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) set the tone for the Republican backlash. His first response to the size of the stimulus bill was, "Oh. My. God."

The House vote on Jan. 26 revealed a sharp partisan divide that surprised even the new president. Obama had personally met with Congressional Republicans before the vote, and he had even named three Republicans to his Cabinet. Yet, not one House Republican voted for the House's $819 billion version of the stimulus bill.

In the Senate, the Democrats knew they needed Republican support. Three GOP moderates -- Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania -- crossed the aisle to worked with the Democratic leadership and the White House and craft a bill they could support. Their $838 billion version passed on Feb. 10 with the only Republican votes coming from Collins, Snowe and Specter. The $787 billion compromise worked out among House, Senate and White House leaders passed both houses three days later.

Obama signed the economic stimulus bill on Feb. 17, saying:

I don't want to pretend that today marks the end of our economic problems, nor does it constitute all of what we're going to have to do to turn our economy around. But today does mark the beginning of the end.

Fixing the struggling U.S. economy was the president's top concern, but he also saw green in the solutions.

Obama's energy goals included:

• doubling the country's renewable energy capacity by 2012 to produce enough electricity to power 6 million homes;
• using loan guarantees and grants to leverage $100 billion in clean energy project investments by 2012;
• retrofitting 2 million homes and three-quarters of federal buildings for energy efficiency to save the government $2 billion a year;
• and developing a national smart power grid, including installing 40 million smart meters in homes.

Highlights of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill that the president signed:

• $13.9 billion in loans for renewable energy projects
• $11 billion for "smart grid" technology and development
• $8.4 billion in public transit
• $8 billion for new high speed rail projects
• $6.4 billion to clean up nuclear weapon sites
• $6.3 billion in state energy efficiency and clean energy grants
• $5 billion to weatherize middle-income homes
• $4.5 billion to retrofit federal buildings for energy efficiency
• $3.2 billion in block grants for local government energy efficiency and renewable energy projects
• $3.1 billion for the State Energy Program's energy efficiency work

Two Web sites have been set up to track the stimulus bill's spending: technology company Onvia's Tracking Recovery site at www.recovery.org, and the federal government's www.recovery.gov.