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House Republicans forced adjournment a day early last week in flight from a Senate Republican transportation bill. To find the source of the stand-off, look no further than the Republican budget. The surface transportation bill was a “two-for” – a readymade basic need during construction season – and a must-pass bill that must be authorized this year. Yet, the Republican budget, for the first time in our history, cut almost all new highway and transit funding.

The U.S. Green Building Council applauds President Obama and EPA Administrator McCarthy for their leadership this week in adopting the Clean Power Plan - a measure critical to the nation’s efforts to address climate change and all the human risks and impacts it entails. Importantly, EPA’s final rule aims to take advantage of market forces to realize significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions along with co-benefits to public health, such as fewer heart attacks and asthma attacks

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) today delivered the following statement during a committee hearing exploring alternatives to help families and children reduce reliance on foster care group homes

USDA Rural Utilities Service Administrator Brandon McBride today announced $42 million for 16 projects to build and improve water and wastewater infrastructure in rural communities across Texas.

President Obama announced the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s final Clean Power Plan today, which will cut U.S. carbon pollution from the power sector by 870 million tons, or 32 percent below 2005 levels, in 2030. Power plants are the largest drivers of climate change in the United States, accounting for roughly one-third of all carbon pollution emissions, but there were no national limits on carbon pollution until today.

The House Committee on Natural Resources and the House Small Business Committee held a joint field hearing in Homestead, Florida, on the National Park Service’s (NPS) General Management Plan (GMP) for Biscayne National Park released in June 2015. The GMP, which includes a Marine Reserve Zone (MRZ) that would be closed to all commercial and recreational fishing, conflicts with the position of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the recommendations of the park's own stakeholder working group.

U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, issued the following statement in response to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) announcement that it has approved the Clean Power Plan, which could increase electricity bills for Americans across the country

As part of VA’s ongoing commitment to provide care to Veterans and their families, the Department of Veterans Affairs today announced that it will start the  process of amending its regulations to establish presumptions of service connection for certain conditions resulting from exposure to contaminated drinking water at the U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, issued her support of President Obama’s Clean Power Plan. “After years of talk and no action, this rule requires real action. It will put us on a realistic pathway to reducing carbon pollution,” Sen. Cantwell said

Today at the White House, President Obama and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy will release the final Clean Power Plan, a historic step in the Obama Administration’s fight against climate change

Today, President Obama will unveil the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan—a historic step to cut the carbon pollution driving climate change. Here are six key things every American should know

Furthering efforts to encourage clean energy innovation, the Energy Department today released a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) to support the research, development, and demonstration of advanced reactor concepts. The announcement represents an early step in increasing investment in nuclear advanced reactor technologies, which have the potential to provide substantially enhanced operational performance, safety, security, economics, and proliferation resistance.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today that it has charged the owners and landlords of an eight-unit apartment complex in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with violating the Fair Housing Act by refusing to allow a resident with disabilities to use a wheelchair in his apartment. HUD's charge also alleges that the Salem Family Trust and Calvin L. Salem, trustee and manager of the property, refused to return the resident's security deposit after he was forced to move out of his apartment. Read HUD's charge

The Urban Land Institute, a global research and education institute dedicated to leadership in land use, is launching a new initiative to help four U.S. cities – Charlotte, N.C.; Detroit, Philadelphia and San Jose, Calif. – better understand what people value in their communities in order to build more livable, successful cities. The initiative will connect the national results of Urban Land Institute’s biannual survey of consumers regarding housing, transportation and communities to local data and regional trends for each of the cities to help them plan for the future. It is funded by $75,000 from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, advanced bipartisan energy legislation along with Chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in an 18-4 vote in committee.

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) issued the following prepared statement for today’s rally with immigration rights groups at the John A. Wilson Building reaffirming the city’s home-rule right to be a sanctuary city and detailing the efforts she is taking to ensure that neither the national anti-immigrant bill, which was passed by the House, or the separate anti-home-rule bill that targets D.C. immigrants becomes law

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the availability of loans to build broadband in rural areas, along with changes to the program required by the 2014 Farm Bill. "USDA is committed to providing broadband to rural areas," Vilsack said. "Broadband is as vital as electricity was 80 years ago. Since 2009, USDA investments have delivered broadband service to 1.5 million households, businesses, schools, libraries and community facilities.

The National Council on Disability (NCD), an independent federal agency, in a cooperative agreement with the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services (NASDDDS), will release “Home and Community-Based Services: Creating Systems for Success at Home, at Work and in the Community” online Tuesday, February 24, 2015.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today that it is making $39.2 million available to fight housing discrimination under HUD's 2015 Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA). This year's funding notice also creates six new types of grants that support fair housing capacity building, education and outreach activities, and testing in rental and sales transactions.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of HIV/AIDS Housing, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), today unveiled a new training curriculum for HIV/AIDS housing and service providers focused on employment services.