Plus, Think of All That Interest They'll Accrue

Science agencies are still hanging on to most of their stimulus money, reports Wired. Of the $36.7 billion the US Department of Energy received, it has only spent $451 million. If spending data from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and Environmental Protection Agency are combined, they have doled out only 1.2 percent of their stimulus funds. The holdup is due to the review process of the proposed projects. "We awarded one out of every five projects, so the projects we were able to select are terrific projects," says Matt Rogers, senior advisor to Secretary of Energy. "If we don't go through this competitive process, you don't see the best projects. There's a time-quality trade-off."