Despite 'ramp up' call, stimulus spending slows

— -- Federal spending meant to jump-start the economy slowed last week, two weeks after President Obama vowed to "ramp up" the pace of that aid.

Last week, federal agencies allocated about $5.2billion in new stimulus aid for projects across the country, according to disclosure reports the agencies released Thursday.

That's less than at any point in the previous month and less than the roughly $8.6 billion the government has spent, on average, in every previous week since Obama signed the massive spending and tax relief package in February.

"If my boss came to me and told me to ramp something up, I'd do it," said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "If the president says it, you'd definitely expect something to happen, so I don't know why it isn't happening."

Obama vowed on June 8 to increase the pace at which his administration is spending the $787 billion in stimulus money, promising to create or save 600,000 jobs this summer alone. Obama said again at a news conference this week that he's still not satisfied with the pace of federal aid.

Still, administration officials said it would be misleading to judge that effort on only a few weeks of spending data. "The president and vice president committed to put Recovery Act funds to work faster in the second 100 days than we did in the first, and we are on track to do exactly that," said Liz Oxhorn, a spokeswoman for the White House stimulus program.

The slowdown shouldn't be surprising, said William Beach, an economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation. Much of the government's earliest spending went directly to states, often in allocations measured in hundreds of millions of dollars. Now the government has to deal with smaller, more complicated efforts that can't move forward as fast. "We expected the money to leave Washington slowly, and that's what's happening," he said.

Much of the $152 billion the government has allocated so far has been to help states deal with the rising cost of providing medical coverage, help people hurt by the recession, and stabilize school systems facing deep budget shortfalls.