Recovery Director Keeps Watchful Eye on Stimulus Expenditures
Recovery Director
New Hampshire Union Leader
Aoife Connors
Boston University Washington News Service
April 10, 2009
WASHINGTON – Tracking the expenditure of $300 million in the Recovery and Reinvestment Act for your state is a demanding job. Try planning a wedding at the same time. That gives you a sense of the craziness that surrounds the life of Lisa Levine, newly appointed recovery director in the office of Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.).
Constituents throughout the 2nd Congressional District in New Hampshire contact Levine looking for information on how to get access to stimulus funds. Levine directs them to the competitive grants and application processes.
Trying to understand the stimulus plan can be overwhelming for most people, whether you are a small-business person who needs help or a community group. “My job is to direct – weave through the recovery plan – and figure out if there is opportunity for them to access funds, and if there is, how they can access that opportunity,” Levine said.
Her role also involves “working with the Obama administration and Governor [John] Lynch’s office to make sure the Recovery Act funding is being properly spent,” she said. “It must help New Hampshire cities and towns rebuild our infrastructure, our schools, and ultimately create jobs.”
Levine travels to communities, providing information and assistance. Recently, she said, “I met the head of the New Hampshire Police Chiefs Association, in Lincoln. I gave him some good leads about where the police chiefs could access stimulus money.”
Currently she is working with Keene, which needs a new fire station, Levine said. There is a competitive grant in the Recovery Act specifically for fire stations. The grant is available through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“The Recovery Act funding is targeted at building fire stations, because many fire stations are falling apart,” Levine said.
What is most interesting about the stimulus funding, Levine said, is that it is not as complicated as potentially it could have been. “I’m finding that we are getting information in a timely way,” she said.
Born in Massachusetts, Levine’s childhood was split between her two homes, one in Newton, Mass., and the other in Newbury, N.H. “On Friday afternoons my family traveled to Newbury, New Hampshire, until Sunday,” living in the Lake Sunapee region, Levine said.
Levine graduated from Tufts University and then went to law school at Suffolk University, graduating in 1995.
“It was a bad job year if you were graduating from law school,” Levine said, so she moved to Washington.
“On average most people who move to Washington stay there for three or four years, so me staying ten was a little extraordinary,” Levine said.
After working four years for Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Levine entered the world of lobbying in Washington. She spent the next 18 months working for the American Association of University Women.
During the next five years, Levine worked in Washington as a lobbyist for a large Indiana law firm.
In 2005, Levine moved home to New Hampshire, where her “entire extended family and cousins were living in Newbury.”
She settled in Concord, where she now lives with fiancé Joshua Urozitch. Levine said they can’t wait to get married in September, in the Lake Sunapee region.
The congressman will laugh when I tell you this, Levine said, “but these days most of my time away from the office is spent planning my wedding.”
Rushing into the Filene’s Basement bridal sale at noon recently, Levine and her mother were on the search for the “pretty wedding dress,” that the 38-year-old so desired. “People queue up at 6 a.m. and run into the store when it opens, hoarding dresses,” Levine said. Being an organizer, Levine had read online that going in at noon is recommended, “when the madness has quietened down.”
Her dream came through when she found the prettiest dress that “cost her $250 but retailed at $2,000.”
“Life is a bit crazy,” Levine laughed. “We have been so busy finding a location, finding someone to marry us, finding a tent and tables for the reception,” and the list seems to go on.
It doesn’t faze Levine, who is completely at ease and light hearted about the workload and busy schedule.
Upon his election in November 2006, Rep. Hodes asked Levine to work for him as director of special projects. She said, “I work with constituents to find federal funding for projects, which is why the congressman felt I was fit to become recovery director.” Levine is also the congressman’s legal counsel.
“Lisa helps me to keep New Hampshire tax dollars right here in the Granite State, so we can fund critical projects for our state’s future,” Hodes said.
House Democratic freshmen and members elected for the first time in 2006 were encouraged to appoint a recovery director or economic development coordinator, according to a spokesperson in the office of the speaker of the House.
More than 60 Democratic representatives have appointed recovery directors, said Chris Barnes, press director at the Democratic Caucus.
Republican members are not expected to appoint recovery directors since they are less enthusiastic about the stimulus funding, he added. No Senators have appointed recovery directors.
Levine works closely with Orville “Bud” Fitch, whom Gov. Lynch recently appointed as director of the state’s Office of Economic Stimulus.
“Our role is to initially identify every potential opportunity for New Hampshire in the stimulus bill,” Fitch said.
Communication about where stimulus money is spent is essential, Levine said. “Everything done in New Hampshire must be reported both on recovery.gov, the federal Web site and on nh.gov/recovery, the state Web site.”
The recovery director acts as an early-warning system if the funds are not being distributed efficiently, Levine said.
The time frame for the distribution of the stimulus funds varies among government departments. Levine said, “The funding is just beginning to flow from lots of federal agencies.”
The stimulus money is expected to create almost 16,000 jobs in New Hampshire. “We will be able to see, in a fairly short time frame, some of these jobs created and others protected,” Levine said.
Levine is optimistic that as this money begins to come into New Hampshire “people and cities and towns will begin to see some relief.”
Having traveled throughout the state, she said she was aware that people are suffering.
“The recession is pervasive, it is everywhere,” Levine said. “If folks are not losing their jobs, they know someone who has lost their job or they know someone who is struggling.”
The stimulus law is expected to create many different types of jobs. Levine said, “It’s not just one industry, not just one type of project coming into the state; there will be transportation and road projects, green jobs and funding for services.”
Levine said she thinks there will be improvement. “There is a tenacity in the state among New Hampshire folks to fight for themselves and fight for their families, because we are a proud people,” Levine said.
It is going to take time, she added, “but my hope is that as this federal funding comes to New Hampshire, we can really have an impact on people’s lives. That is the ultimate goal of this legislation.”
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