Washington

A panel that advises the Internal Revenue Service will present reports next month, including one from the committee's tax-exempt bonds team on the treatment of management contracts.

Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association president and chief executive officer Kenneth Bentsen criticized recent efforts by the Securities and Exchange Commission to further regulate the muni market, telling issuer officials on Tuesday that a new rule and initiative could undermine productive relationships between municipalities and underwriters.

Airport infrastructure public-private partnerships are often stymied by a web of competing local interests, aviation advocates told a House P3 panel.

Despite the warm spring weather, industry concerns over the SEC's Municipal Continuing Disclosure Cooperative Initiative have begun to snowball.

Sharon Zackula has joined the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board as an associate general counsel.

State and local officials are worried that small issuers of municipal bonds will be disproportionately exposed to the risk of enforcement action under the Securities and Exchange Commission's continuing self-reporting program on disclosure failures, and plan to pressure the commission to extend the initiative's deadline beyond its current Sept. 10 date and offer more guidance.

Kent Hiteshew, the director of the Treasury Department's new office of state and local finance, described the office's initial areas of focus and asked municipal government finance officials to provide input about how the office could be helpful.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association will help large issuers of municipal bonds pressure the Securities and Exchange Commission for a sophisticated issuer exemption from its municipal advisor rule, and will also request another delay in the rule's effective date if more guidance is not available soon.

The Government Finance Officers Association has released model language for issuer officials to use when interracting with broker-dealers and other entities under the municipal advisor rule.

The District of Columbia will become the first jurisdiction in the United States to implement a social impact bond to finance services aimed at reducing teen pregnancy and increasing high schoolers' educational attainment, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray's budget and finance office said.

Asset managers may have to register as municipal advisors to protect themselves from violating the Securities and Exchange Commission's MA rule, which places restrictions on advice concerning muni bond proceeds and other financial products commonly used by states and localities.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded to A3 from A2 the rating on Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee gave its unanimous approval to six-year bill authorizing $242 billion of federal highway funding.

Washington's Issaquah School District is planning to sell $55 million of triple-A rated general obligation bonds later this month.

The draft transportation bill released by a key Senate committee falls far short of funding needs by proposing only $242.4 billion for road projects over six years, administration officials and highway industry experts are warning.

The draft transportation bill released late Monday night by a Senate committee calls for $242.4 billion of federal funding for highway projects over six years.

Increased transparency in the bond rating agencies has been a positive for both investors and issuers, even though it can potentially create a false sense of analysis being an exact science, experts told fellow municipal analysts on Thursday.

Former CDR Financial Products, Inc. employees Douglas Goldberg and Daniel Naeh were not given any prison time or probation when sentenced on Thursday after pleading guilty in 2010 to multiple criminal charges for participating in wide-reaching bid rigging schemes in the municipal market.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will vote on a surface transportation reauthorization bill on May 15, committee leaders announced Thursday.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts presented its annual awards during its conference here on Wednesday, honoring four individuals and an organization for contributions to the municipal bond industry.