government

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) today announced they are co-hosting an annual educational conference from June 13-16, 2016 in San Antonio to address today's pressing environmental health issues.The State of Big Ideas: Moving Environmental Health Outside the Box will include sessions on emerging issues such as Zika virus, preserving affordable housing through healthy home repairs, marijuana, climate change, the Flint, Michigan water crisis and more.

Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) called for strengthening programs at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) critical to informing decisions, ensuring public safety and monitoring natural hazards such as volcanoes, landslides and earthquakes that cause tsunamis. The state of Washington is especially prone to many of these natural disasters.

The Federal Trade Commission is mailing 474 checks totaling more than $33,000 to consumers who lost money to a scheme that charged homeowners an up-front fee for mortgage relief services they promised but never provided.

A compliance officer with the Union City Community Development Agency (UCCDA) today admitted that he manipulated the contractor selection process for federally funded residential rehabilitation and sidewalk replacement projects, causing losses of $40,000 to $95,000, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Pacific Northwest Region completed 22 environmental compliance and enforcement actions in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington from October 1, 2015 through December 31, 2015

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today proposed adding the Dorado Groundwater Contamination Site in the municipality of Dorado, Puerto Rico to its Superfund National Priorities List of the country’s most hazardous waste sites. Sampling at the site has found chemical contamination that is impacting wells used to supply drinking water to the local communities. Exposure to the solvents, which include tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene, can have serious health impacts including, damage to the liver and increase the risk of cancer

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that two Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) employees illegally interfered with a Congressional investigation and has recommended sanctions

The House of Representatives has filed an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Texas opposing the Obama administration's executive overreach. The brief, authorized by a vote of the full House, sets forth why only Congress—not the executive branch—is empowered to write the nation’s immigration laws.

A finely tuned carbon nanotube thin film has the potential to act as a thermoelectric power generator that captures and uses waste heat, according to researchers at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

The Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources, Dr. Yuval Steinitz, and the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Dr. Ernest Moniz, this morning signed an amendment to an existing agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructure that will further enhance cooperation between the two countries.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today announced that nearly $174 million will soon be made available through first-ever allocations of the National Housing Trust Fund. HUD Secretary Julián Castro made announcement to a gathering of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition meeting in Washington. Read more about the National Housing Trust Fund.

Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra (CA-34) today joined 163 current and former House Members as well as 44 current and former Senators in signing on to an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit defending President Obama’s Clean Power Plan

Scientists at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have been able to pinpoint for the first time what happens during a key manufacturing process of silicon solar cells.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today kicked off Fair Housing Month 2016 with the launch of a new national media campaign that helps the public to envision what communities with shared opportunity for all might look like. The new campaign is designed to further educate the public about their housing rights and the ideals behind HUD’s new Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) initiative

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a final rule that provides new religious liberty protections for beneficiaries of its programs and activities. In addition, HUD’s new rule ensures that faith-based providers can compete for government funds on the same basis as any other private organization.

Yesterday, Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) congratulated Aero-Flite, Inc., of Spokane, on the five-year contract awarded for two of their water-scooping aircraft. The aircraft will be used primarily for the initial attack of wildland fires

Thursday, Congresswoman Aumua Amata, announced today that the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) under the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Administration (HHS) has awarded a grant in the amount of $1,000,000 to the LBJ Medical Center in Pago Pago for the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home visiting Program.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Shipbuilding Group recently signed an alliance focused on preventing worker exposure to electrical, ergonomic, struck-by and slip, trip and fall hazards in shipyards. The Shipbuilding Group is comprised of the National Shipbuilding Research Program and the Shipbuilders Council of America.

Three years after its launch, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) has generated $2 billion in private investment to make critically needed repairs and improvements to more than 30,000 units of former public housing. Under the RAD model, public housing authorities and owners of other HUD-supported properties can access private financing to rehabilitate and preserve existing affordable housing while expanding opportunity in communities across the nation.

Scientists from the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), along with their counterparts from solar energy research institutes in Germany and Japan, gathered recently to discuss the future of photovoltaics (PV) and assess its contributions to increasing global prosperity, energy security and mitigation of climate change.