Rick Boucher Works for Montgomery County

Talking Points

Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center Expansion: The U.S. Department of Commerce through its Economic Development Administration is providing a federal grant of $1,980,000 to Virginia Tech to expand its Corporate Research Center. Currently, the Center consists of 24 buildings housing 140 private research companies and employs more than 2000 individuals. The federal funding will enable an expansion of the center, which will include the construction of 18 additional buildings housing up to 100 companies employing 2500 individuals. The federal funds will be matched by the Virginia Tech foundation.

Virginia Tech Receives Largest Federal Award in School’s History: The National Institutes of Health has awarded Virginia Tech $27,670,448 for its Virginia Bioinformatics Institute. The funding will advance the Pathogen Portal project, which is a vast database of information involving infectious diseases. The database supports biomedical research across the nation, serving as a key tool for scientists, researchers and agencies in analyzing data from research involving infectious diseases.

New River Valley Emergency Communications System: Congress has approved my request for $250,000 for a regional communications system, which will establish a central 911 dispatch center for the Towns of Blacksburg and Christiansburg, the City of Radford, Radford University, Montgomery County and Virginia Tech. The new dispatch system will facilitate centralized communications among the emergency officials in these jurisdictions and help them respond to emergencies more efficiently. I will be working to secure additional funds for this project in the future.

$561,391 Awarded to Southwest Virginia Legal Aid: The U.S. Department of Justice, through its STOP Violence Against Women Grant Program, is providing a federal grant in the amount of $561,391 to the SWVA Legal Aid Society to hire staff to provide legal representation and enhance support services for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence at its offices in Marion, Castlewood and Christiansburg. Studies have indicated that the availability of comprehensive legal and support services for victims can be a factor in reducing incidences of domestic violence. A portion of the funding will be distributed to community organizations which offer support services for victims.

Veterans Cemetery: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded a federal grant of $7,218,366 to the state to enable the construction of the first 24 acres of the region’s first veterans cemetery, which is expected to meet the cemetery’s needs for 10 years. When completed, the cemetery will provide burial opportunities for 60,000 veterans from across the region. With the award of the federal grant, construction on the project is now underway and is expected to be completed in late 2010. In the Fall of 2006 we took the first step toward achieving that goal, when the U. S. Congress passed legislation I introduced directing the U. S. Army to convey 79.8 acres of federally owned land to the Commonwealth of Virginia for the purpose of establishing the region’s first veterans cemetery.

Economic Recovery funds for the 9th: The 9th District has received a total of more than $400 million from the Economic Recovery Act. This includes:

• $2 million in grants to local first responders.

• More than $4 million for rural health care.

• More than $100 million for water and wastewater infrastructure.

• More than $180 million for school improvements.

Recovery Funds for Montgomery County
$25,000 for the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office: The Montgomery County Sheriff’s office has received a Recovery Act grant of $25,000 from Rural Development to equip its vehicles with new in-car mobile data terminals. The terminals enable officers to have greater communication and access to state and national criminal databases in their vehicles. You secured a federal appropriation late last year of $100,000 for this project. The total of $125,000 will be used to equip 29 vehicles total (25 with the $100,000 and 4 additional vehicles with the $25,000).

Recovery Funds for Virginia Tech:

• Nearly $17 million from the National Science Foundation for research.

• $529,974 from the Department of Health and Human Services for research.

• $34,645,198 from the Fiscal Stabilization fund to help ease state budget reductions.

• $1.25 million from the Department of Energy to create a Smart Grid clearinghouse of information online (project is in Virginia Tech’s Advanced Research Institute in Northern Virginia).

Boucher Press Announcements (December 2009)

Download press releases about major successes achieved for Montgomery County, Virginia Tech and Southwest Virginia, by Congressman Boucher.

www.BoucherForCongress.com