The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded $1.2 billion in economic stimulus funds to 126 broadband infrastructure projects in rural areas around the country.

The loans and grants will leverage an additional $117 million in private investment.

This is USDA's second round of funding for economic stimulus broadband projects.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the projects "will give rural Americans access to the tools they need to attract new businesses, jobs, health care and educational opportunities."

USDA and the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration received a total of $7.2 billion in economic stimulus funds to encourage broadband access and adoption. They must obligate all of this money by Sept. 30.

The deadline could lead to some problems, according to the Government Accountability Office. The agencies could face pressure to award all of the funds on time, and they will have to oversee more and larger projects than they funded in earlier rounds, according to the GAO report. They may not have enough resources to actively monitor the projects, the GAO concluded.

Senator concerned schools may be mismanaging stimulus

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is concerned the Department of Education has given economic stimulus funds to school districts that mismanage the money.

The stimulus bill provided the department with an extra $98 billion.

Grassley said he is upset that a school district which received $343 million in stimulus funds owes the agency $17 million for reimbursements that shouldn't have been allowed. Another school district that received stimulus funds failed to file required financial audits.

"You have to wonder if good money is being thrown after bad, in these cases," said Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

He asked the secretary of education to outline what is being done to "make sure the tax dollars being spent in the name of stimulus are not subject to waste, fraud and abuse."