This means that there is a “commitment” to spend the money ($15.8billion) on some 4700 projects.

How this impacts our industry remains to be seen.

At that point, they can either send out the money to states/other intermediaries, or can start a direct contracting process. Assume for a moment (probably not a valid assumption) that RFP – request for proposal – development has been proceeding in parallel so the RFPs can hit the street 5/15/09. Typically, there’s a 30 day response time. (Shorter periods are possible, but too much corner-cutting risks being tied up in legal and adminstrative challenges.) So, roughly 6/15/09, the procuring organizations are just getting the bids back. It’ll take at least 30 days to evaluate – more typically 90, I’d guess. That would suggest that contracts would be let 9/15/09 or so – and then the contractors have to roll trucks, shift/hire people, etc. I’d say that having 10% under contract in 120 days is amazingly good, no matter how frustrating it seems. I’d think that August/September is a better time to check – especially with the government fiscal year ending 9/30/09.