WASHINGTON, January 25, 2010 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the selection of fourteen Recovery Act Broadband Infrastructure projects that will receive $309,923,352 through funding made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. An additional $3,551,887 in private investment brings the total to $313,475,239. Altogether, Congress awarded USDA $2.5 billion in Recovery Act funding to help bring broadband services to rural un-served and underserved communities.
On March 20, 2009, President Obama issued an Executive Branch-wide Memorandum entitled, "Ensuring Responsible Spending of Recovery Act Funds" to foster transparency and facilitate merit-based decision-making in awarding funds.
In the memo, President Obama provided guidance as to how to provide the American people with information regarding lobbyist communications about specific American Recovery and Reinvestment Act projects.
The following is a chronological list of documents detailing USDA's communications with lobbyists. In each, you will find the date of contact, the name of the employee contacted and his or her title, a brief description of the communication's substance, the way in which the contact took place, the name of the lobbyist and his or her title, the lobbyist's firm and client. If communication is written, the written correspondence will be attached to the form.
