Naomi Jagoda

Federal Open Market Committee members continued to believe that if the economy continues to develop as anticipated, additional reductions in the pace of asset purchases would be made in "measured steps," according to the minutes of the panel's January meeting, released Wednesday.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $51 million of general obligation bonds issued by Garfield School District, No. RE-2 in Colorado in 2006.

The Treasury Department resumed sales of state and local government series securities on Tuesday at noon, Eastern Standard Time.

Industrial production fell 0.3% in January, the Federal Reserve reported Friday.

The House and Senate have passed legislation that extends the cuts to subsidy payments for Build America Bonds and other direct-pay bonds by an additional year.

Sen. Ron Wyden, the new chair of the Senate Finance Committee, has recently voiced some ideas that would favor the municipal bond market, such as extending bond-related and other expiring tax provisions and reinstating Build America Bonds. But the Oregon Democrat's past actions, such as sponsoring legislation that would favor tax-credit over tax-exempt bonds, have posed threats to the muni market.

The House and Senate have passed a suspension of the debt limit through March 15, 2015.

The federal government ran a $10.4 billion deficit in January, the Treasury Department reported Wednesday.

Governors presented more optimistic outlooks of their states' economies and finances in their state of the state addresses this year, and many said they would pursue new spending, Moody's Investors Service said in a report.

Sen. Max Baucus, the outgoing chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on Thursday as U.S. Ambassador to China.

Pension costs will still be growing for many local governments 2014 even though adjusted net pension liabilities are lower, Moody's Investors Service said in a report issued this week.

A Treasury Department official said Wednesday that she recognizes the proposed issue price rules would be problematic for competitive bond deals and wants to know more about how they would cause problems for negotiated transactions.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced Tuesday that it will suspend the sales of State and Local Government Series securities on Friday at 12 p.m., eastern standard time.

A bill recently introduced in the House would make permanent the Build America Bond program and also includes other bond-related items.

Congress should not wait until the 11th hour to increase the nation's borrowing authority, and there are areas such as infrastructure investment and tax reform where it may be able to act in a bipartisan manner to help the economy, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said Monday.

A number of different types of bonds are likely to be audited in fiscal 2014 as part of the market segment approach to examinations, an Internal Revenue Service official said Friday.

The Federal Reserve will taper its asset purchases by $10 billion a month in February, the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement released Wednesday following the committee's two-day meeting.

A bipartisan agreement on a farm bill includes a one-year extension of funding for the federal payments in lieu of taxes program through fiscal 2014.

Most of Moody's Investors Service's public finance rating changes in 2013 were downgrades, but the par value of upgrades rose to the highest level since 2010, the rating agency said in a report Monday.

Blank Rome LLP's public finance team is joining Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC in Philadelphia, becoming the firm's only public finance attorneys based in the city, officials said.