Far West

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is preparing a proposal for a multi-year transportation bill that will talk about the importance of developing “institutional capacity” to support a national high-speed rail network, a federal rail official revealed Wednesday night at a conference here.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission late Thursday signed off on rule changes that make the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board a majority-public self-regulator and allow it to temporarily expand to 21 from 15 members beginning Friday, the start of its new fiscal year.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to launch its new office of municipal securities by the end of October, chairman Mary Schapiro said in prepared testimony presented to the Senate Banking Committee Thursday.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — It has been more than six years since San Diego dropped its disclosure bombshell about failing to tell investors of the city’s pension ­underfunding.

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers early Thursday approved a stopgap measure that would fund the federal government at current levels until Dec. 3, before breaking for an election recess. Their action sets the stage for a lame-duck session during which municipal market participants hope they will take up legislation to extend Build America Bonds and other expiring or expired bond-related programs authorized by the stimulus law.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission has quietly hired the head-hunting firm Korn/Ferry ­International to find candidates to lead a new municipal securities office that will have a higher stature within the SEC.

Congress is expected to leave town either late Wednesday or early Thursday to campaign for the fall elections after approving stopgap spending legislation that would keep the federal government running in fiscal 2011, which starts on Oct. 1.

SAN FRANCISCO — Lawyers for the city of Vallejo, Calif., said the National Federation of Municipal Analysts failed to back up “apocalyptical” predictions with any evidence in the city’s response to a brief the organization filed in its bankruptcy case.

WASHINGTON — Congress should create two types of direct-pay transportation bonds to help states and localities build and repair crumbling infrastructure, market participants told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee during a hearing Tuesday.

Regulators’ heightened concern for retail investors in the muni market was on display Tuesday when a top Financial Industry Regulatory Authority official posed an alarming scenario to industry representatives in New York.