Under contract

• Last month, a Michigan-based company with offices in Virginia won a $3 million contract for the stands and bleachers to be used in the presidential inauguration in January. The Architect of the Capitol is continuing to prepare for the event, awarding Maryland Sound International a $294,500 contract to install, operate and then remove the sound system for the inaugural ceremony at the West Front side of the Capitol building.

• The State Department has recently handed out a slew of contracts to conduct public opinion surveys of ordinary citizens of countries abroad, including Jordan, Poland, Lebanon, Kazakhstan and Germany. Most recently, it paid the Market Research Organization $40,000 to conduct face-to-face interviews with individuals living in the Palestinian territories. The firm has offices in Lebanon and Jordan and is also conducting the polling services for the State Department in those countries. The firm will survey 2,000 adults in the Palestinian territories. The surveys will have 35 closed-ended questions and five open-ended questions “focusing on public attitudes toward domestic economic and political issues, as well as international affairs.” 

{mosads}• In an effort to improve intergovernmental relationships between the federal government and Native American tribes, the Department of Interior last year announced it would be rolling out new online and in-classroom courses in a partnership with the Falmouth Institute. Interior recently awarded the Native American-focused educational organization a $499,000 contract to begin rolling out the training program. Topics covered include tribal sovereignty, federal trust responsibility to tribes and cross-cultural perspectives. “Participants will come away with an understanding of how best to engage in tribal consultation and listen to tribes, improving the department’s ability to make policy for Indian Country and beyond,” said Kevin Washburn, then-assistant secretary of the Interior for Indian affairs, last year. 

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) spent $10.32 million on baits containing oral rabies vaccines to help keep the disease under control in wildlife. The baits are made out of fishmeal polymer and coated sachet balls. Merial, the only company that makes baits that are fully licensed for use in the U.S. by the USDA, won the contract.

Contract information compiled from General Services Administration data and government press releases. Send announcements about government contracts to mwilson@digital-staging.thehill.com.