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Contact: Robin McDaniel
202.720.0843
Salazar chosen by President Bush to serve on USDA
Board
Roberto Salazar, Administrator of USDA’s Food
and Nutrition Service (FNS), was recently sworn in as a director of the Rural
Telephone Bank (RTB) Board. Mr. Salazar was appointed, as one of five
Department of Agriculture representatives, by President George W. Bush in August
to serve on the 13-member board.
The RTB is a government corporation that
functions as an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It lends
approximately $175 million annually to companies and cooperatives for the
purpose of building advanced telecommunications infrastructure, such as
Broadband, in rural America.
The board is responsible for overall policy
decisions and management of the RTB, under the supervision and direction of the
Secretary of Agriculture. Directors are responsible for formulating policies
governing the operations of the RTB and for prescribing its bylaws.
The Rural Utilities Service (RUS) of the USDA
performs the day to day operations of RTB and its Administrator serves as the
Governor of the RTB. “With his extensive knowledge of state and federal
agencies and his work in telecommunications, Mr. Salazar is an excellent choice
by the President to serve on the RTB Board,” said RUS Administrator Hilda Gay
Legg. “I look forward to working with him in this capacity.”
Mr. Salazar came to the USDA after serving as
State Director of USDA’s Rural Development agency in New Mexico. He also
served as former Director of the Office of Science and Technology (OST) at the
New Mexico Economic Development Department and was the Governor's policy advisor
on telecommunications.
The RTB, which was established in 1971 to assure
rural telephone systems access to private sources of capital, currently has a
loan portfolio of over $1 billion in principal outstanding. It has never had a
loan default.
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