25A - AGMT - FEDERAL GOVERNMENT LIAISON SRVS

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Funding Successes With Holland & Knight Per the RFP, the City seeks assistance in identifying funding opportunities and grant applications and other special programs for which the City may qualify. Below are detailed descriptions of the federal departments listed in the RFP where Holland & Knight has had funding and policy successes with other clients: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Holland & Knight has one of the premier housing and community development advocacy teams in Washington, D.C. We have been retained by local governments nationwide spanning from San Francisco to the District of Columbia, to ensure positive policy and funding results through the appropriations, authorization and agency decision-making processes. The team has consistently proven our strength utilizing our strong relationships with the House and Senate housing authorizing committees and appropriations subcommittees, as well as with HUD's offices of Public and Indian Housing (PIH), Community Development and Urban Planning (CPD), Sustainable Communities and Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations, putting our clients' success above all else. Our team has a strong track record in the area of housing, having provided federal advocacy services for the second-largest housing authority in Southern California for the past 15 years. We have also provided these high-quality services to a number of other local government housing authorities throughout the country. Primary focus areas of the community development team in the area of housing include the Section 8 program, the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) and the HOME Investment Partnership Program (HOME). On the Section 8 program, our team has worked closely with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), members of the House Financial Services Committee as well as the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and housing advocacy groups - including the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) and the National Low- Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) - on efforts to reauthorize and reform the Section 8 program. This is currently pending before Congress. We have also played a key role in working with national local government organizations to increase funding for new Section 8 vouchers through the annual appropriations process. We also worked to oppose a HUD proposal from the previous Administration to block grant the Section 8 program to states, which was defeated. With regard to the HOME Investment Partnership Fund program (HOME), our community development team has closely coordinated efforts with U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, and the National Association of Counties, among other groups, in advocating for full funding for the programs over the last several federal appropriations cycles, as Congress sought to reduce funding for this critical program. As part of this effort, Holland & Knight organized a grassroots campaign to protect HOME, mobilizing 482 cities across California through the League of California Cities to weigh in with their 53-member congressional delegation to urge preservation of funding for the program. This campaign has been successful, yielding an increase in House funding for the program in the chamber's FY 2013 version of the Transportation-HUD Appropriations bill. With regard to HUD competitive grants, our team has worked closely with the firm's local government clients to prepare them to seek funding under HUD's Choice Neighborhoods Initiative programs. Since the program was initially funded in FY 2010, Holland & Knight has increased its Holland & Ian fight Confidential Presentation for the City of Santa Ana 1 12 25A-25