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On Monday, April 25 through Friday, April 29, Mayor Muriel Bowser will join District officials, business leaders, and community members to host a District-wide spring cleaning campaign. Each day of the week, Mayor Bowser, District employees, and residents will highlight resources available to help DC residents remove waste; keeping homes and the city clean and healthy to live in.

Researchers at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have uncovered a way to overcome a principal obstacle in using two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors in electronic and optoelectronic devices.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today, as part of Earth Day celebrations, announced the next phase of bridging to the Tamiami Trail, an ongoing project which provides ecological restoration benefits to Everglades National Park and the central Everglades in Florida. The new trail will raise a two-and-a-half mile section of U.S. Highway 41 in the South Florida region and is the latest milestone in the Obama Administration’s efforts to conserve the Everglades’ historic and iconic wildlife habitat and water flows.

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said the U.S. Department of the Treasury will allocate an additional $28.7 million to District of Columba residents in an effort to prevent foreclosures and help the District housing market. The Department of Treasury is allocating the final $1 billion allotment of grants under the Hardest Hit Fund (HHF), which was established in 2010 to provide targeted assistance to homeowners in the District and 18 states deemed hardest hit by the economic and housing market downturn.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today a $1 million agreement between the Fair Housing Project of North Carolina Legal Aid and North Carolina-based Fidelity Bank to resolve allegations the mortgage lender engaged in unfair lending practices against minority applicants

The House Appropriations Committee approved by voice vote this week a fiscal year (FY) 2017 Energy and Water Appropriations bill totaling $37.4 billion, $259 million above the enacted FY2016 level and $168 million above the President’s budget request.  The bill includes the following funding allocations for federal-state regional commissions:

BRIDGE Housing has named Alison Lorig as Senior Vice President of Development, Pacific Northwest. BRIDGE is a nationally recognized nonprofit developer, owner and manager of affordable housing.

Ginnie Mae President Ted Tozer and China’s Vice Minister of the Ministry of Land and Resources WANG Shiyuan are working together to share best practices on affordable housing financing policy and strategy. A meeting held today between the two leaders represents an important element of Ginnie Mae’s global investor strategy, which is designed to deepen the bilateral relationship between the United States and China on affordable housing policy

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced that the President has made additional disaster assistance available by authorizing an increase in the level of Federal funding for Public Assistance projects undertaken by the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska and Iowa as a result of flooding during the period of May 24 to August 1, 2011 in Iowa and during the period of May 25 to August 1, 2011 in Nebraska

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved two amendments offered by Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) to her broad, bipartisan energy bill. The first, to provide needed flexibility to the Alaska gasline project, passed the Senate by voice vote. The second, to add a resources title composed of 30 lands and water bills to the underlying bill, later passed by a roll call vote of 97 to 0

In another victory for equality for the District of Columbia, the office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee today passed her bill to require the Library of Congress to install the District’s seal in the stained-glass windows of the Thomas Jefferson Building’s Main Reading Room, which contains the seals of all states and territories that existed when the building was constructed, except for the District seal.

Sen. Cantwell’s Yakima Bill Will Help Restore Historic Fish Runs Blocked for More Than a Century and Support Drought Resilience for Ecosystems, Communities and Agriculture in the Yakima River Basin

HCI is seeking full-time college undergraduate students who are interested in participating in the 2016 Fall Congressional Internship Program. Selected individuals will receive an unmatched experience, learning first-hand about our nation’s legislative process while working for a member of Congress and receiving weekly leadership programming from CHCI.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Census Bureau jointly announced the following new residential construction statistics for March 2016: Privately owned housing units authorized by building permits in March were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,086,000. This is 7.7 percent (±1.2%) below the revised February rate of 1,177,000, but is 4.6 percent (±0.9%) above the March 2015 estimate of 1,038,000.  Single-family authorizations in March were at a rate of 727,000; this is 1.2 percent (±1.1%) below the revised February figure of 736,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 324,000 in March.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will evaluate a biennial Emergency Preparedness Exercise at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station. The exercise will occur during the week of April 25th, 2016 to assess the ability of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the State of Maryland to respond to an emergency at the nuclear facility.

This week, representatives from USDA's Rural Development team will be celebrating Earth Day by visiting newly funded projects that will improve rural water quality and safety in 33 states across the country. USDA is investing $183 million in 60 water and wastewater infrastructure projects through Rural Development's Water and Environmental Program (WEP), which provides technical assistance and financing to develop drinking water and waste disposal systems for communities with fewer than 10,000 residents.

Shaun Hayes and Michael Litz were indicted on bank fraud charges relating to Excel Bank which was closed by regulators in 2012. The indictment was returned Wednesday by a federal grand jury in St. Louis. Hayes, 56 from Frontenac, was arrested late Thursday, and Litz, 61 from Ladue, is expected to turn himself in early next week. Hayes had ownership in and other associations with a number of banks in the St. Louis area. Litz was an owner of major real estate businesses in the area, Eighteen Investments and Bellington Realty.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that USDA is soliciting applications for grants to establish broadband in unserved rural communities through its Community Connect program. Community Connect is administered by USDA's Rural Utilities Service and helps to fund broadband deployment into rural communities where it is not economically viable for private sector providers to provide service

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today it is charging landlords in Beloit, Kansas with violating the Fair Housing Act after allegedly discriminating against a female tenant with disabilities by not renewing her lease, sending her a notice containing discriminatory statements about her disability, and retaliating against her for filing a previous fair housing complaint.

Freedom Mortgage Corporation has agreed to pay the United States $113 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by knowingly originating and underwriting single family mortgage loans insured by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) that did not meet applicable requirements for the FHA insurance program, the Justice Department announced today.  Freedom Mortgage Corporation is headquartered in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey.