Washington

The Bond Buyer's Washington section focuses on how the bond market is affected by the actions of Congress, the IRS, SEC and MSRB. Topics regularly covered include how IRS actions are affecting the status of tax-exempt bonds as well as how legislation and regulations affect the way the municipal bond market conducts business.

• SEC Sets Rule for Muni FAs

  WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday announced that it has adopted a temporary rule requiring municipal advisers to register with it by Oct. 1 to comply with the recently enacted Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. [FREE]

• The Credit Calendar

• Moody’s Pulls Indemnification Language From Muni Issuer Applications

  WASHINGTON — Bowing to growing concerns from muni issuers, Moody’s Investors Service announced Wednesday that it will stop trying to get state and local issuers to agree to indemnify and hold it and its officers harmless for any mistakes they might make as a precondition to assigning ratings to municipal bond transactions.

• Analysts: News Better Than Disclosure

  WASHINGTON — More than 90% of municipal analysts surveyed believe they are more likely to hear about material events from the news than from issuers’ continuing disclosure notices, according to a new study.

• Treasury Announces NIBP Changes for HFAs

  The Treasury Department announced several changes Wednesday to its new issue bond purchase program for housing finance agencies, most notably that it is extending by one year through 2011 its deadline for converting short-term taxable bonds to long-term, tax-exempt bonds.

• IRS Accepting CREB Requests From Electric Coops

  The Internal Revenue Service Wednesday announced it is accepting applications from nonprofit electric cooperatives for $190.8 million of new clean renewable energy bonds that have not yet been allocated.

• Tax-Exempts Beat BABs In After-Tax Yields: Study

  WASHINGTON — A National Bureau of Economic Research study has concluded that while Build America Bonds have succeeded in their mission to lower financing costs for state and local governments, traditional tax-exempt bonds still offer more enticing after-tax yields to individual investors. [FREE]

• IRS Warns Texas City Agency

  An Internal Revenue Service agent is warning the Crystal City, Tex., Public Facilities Corp. that $13.9 million of bonds it issued in 2003 to purchase a jail may not be tax-exempt because the agency appears to have exceeded private business-use limits.

• Ramsay Plans Return to SEC as Deputy Chief in Markets, Trading

  John Ramsay, a former federal regulatory and industry lawyer with broad experience in the municipal and other financial markets, plans to return to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Sept. 20, this time as a deputy director in the markets and trading division.

• Rockefeller Report Sees Improvement in State Tax Revenue

  State tax revenues are slowly climbing out of recession levels, the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government concluded in a report released Monday.