Washington

Peter Chan, the architect of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative, will join Morgan, Lewis & Bockius as a partner in the firm's Chicago office, it announced Thursday.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has dismissed a challenge to the investment advisers pay-to-play rule, ruling that it lacks jurisdiction to hear the case.

Failure by Congress to develop a long-term transportation bill early next year could mean another highway funding crisis in a few months.

The District of Columbia is planning to price roughly $523 million of general obligation bonds next week and “strong demand” is expected both because of improved ratings and the fact that it’s been awhile since D.C. issued long-term, fixed rate GOs, said D.C. Deputy Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Jeffrey Barnette.

States are having trouble forecasting tax revenue largely because of increasing volatility in their revenues, according to a report released by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government on Tuesday.

Securities and Exchange Commission member Michael Piwowar said Tuesday that it isn't clear if implementing a uniform fiduciary standard of conduct for broker-dealers and investment advisers providing personalized investment advice about securities would benefit retail investors.

Bonds issued for a District of Columbia charter school in 2007 have been downgraded to B-minus from B-plus by Standard & Poor's because of pending litigation, the rating agency said Friday.

Washington State University has been authorized to sell up to $16.25 million of revenue bonds for a new health clinic at its Spokane, Wash. campus.

Former District of Columbia Treasurer Lasana Mack was reported missing earlier this month, and a body found in a Maryland park is believed to be his, police said.

Transportation Department doesn't account for how it awards federal TIGER grants, GAO says in new report.

Gasoline tax revenues are not a reliable long-term source for financing transportation infrastructure, Pew Charitable Trusts said in new report.

Crystal City, Texas has reached an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service to settle tax rule violations and preserve the tax-exempt status of interest already paid on $13.94 million of jail bonds issued by an authority in 2003 and now in default.

Partnerships between governmental or nonprofit entities and private entities should be treated favorably under private-activity bond and 501(c)(3) bond rules, the National Association of Bond Lawyers argued.

The Village Center Community Development District in Florida, whose status as a political subdivision that can issue tax-exempt bonds has been disputed, is planning to price three issues of taxable refunding bonds next week.

A federal appeals court recently agreed with a lower court that former Miami budget director Michael Boudreaux does not have immunity from Securities and Exchange Commission charges, a decision some experts think could have implications for the SEC's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative or other enforcement actions going forward.

A federal banking rule that doesn't classify municipal bonds as high-quality liquid assets needs to be reworked to ensure it won't impede critical infrastructure development, Sen. Chuck Schumer told regulators on Tuesday.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers has many ongoing projects, including completing an analysis of the long-term implications of a self-reporting disclosure enforcement program, commenting on the SEC's 2012 municipal market report, and providing regulators with its views on tax issues, said its incoming president Antonio "Tony" Martini.

Two ex-JPMorgan bankers shouldn't be allowed to give statements six years after taking the Fifth Amendment in the Jefferson County, Ala., sewer bond and swap case, the SEC says.

Proposed legislation in the House would cut Amtrak's funding by 40% and redirect passenger-line profits to Northeast capital projects.

A Treasury Department official, a former Federal Reserve Board chair, congressional staffers and state treasurers spoke at an industry-sponsored municipal securities conference on Thursday that was closed to the press.