The federal stimulus package, officially entitled "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act," was passed in February 2009.  The allocations to many areas, including tax relief, education, health care, infrastructure and energy investments.  The total bill cost is estimated at $787 billion over the next two years.   

This $787 billion will be disseminated in the five following manners:

• Formula - In many areas, the federal government has pre-determined how much money each state, large city or county will get from the total reinvestment act.  For example, the state of Kentucky will receive $421 million in state energy plan dollars.

  Every state will receive formula funds in many areas.  Kentucky, for example, will get $3.2 billion in formula funds.  Some large cities and counties also qualify for formula funds - these areas are called entitlement communities. Smaller towns and counties are called non-entitlement communities because they do not get funding directly from the federal government and must instead compete for the money given to the state (referred to as balance of state).

• Competition - States, cities and counties are eligible to apply for various federal pools of money in a national competition.
• Demand from eligible individuals and entities - There are some monies available upon request if a government or an individual meets eligibility requirements. 
• One-time disbursements (usually to individuals) - For example, the federal government doled out a one-time increase in unemployment for all those receiving benefits earlier this year.
• Federal Agencies - Some federal stimulus dollars are allocated directly to federal agencies, such as the Department of Energy or the National Institutes of Health for use.

Almost all of these funds are designated for specific uses and must be used quickly.  In most cases, the funds have to be committed to projects within a few months, 50% must be spent within 18 months and all of the money has to be used by June 30th, 2010.