Washington

The Internal Revenue Service is looking for two representatives of the tax-exempt bond community to serve on its 21-member Advisory Committee for the Tax-Exempt and Government Entities Division, called ACT.

WASHINGTON - The House voted by an overwhelming 405-to-16 margin on Thursday to repeal a tax law provision that would require federal, state and local governments to withhold and remit 3% of certain payments made to private contractors beginning in 2013.

WASHINGTON - Bond lawyers want Congress and the Treasury Department to allow muni issuers to current refund certain tax-advantaged bonds, even after they can no longer issue the bonds under existing tax law.

A new poll shows that a statewide ballot initiative to limit highway tolls in Washington has lost traction with voters, according to the Seattle Times.

WASHINGTON - Local government officials gathered here Wednesday and Thursday to seek support from administration officials, lawmakers, and their staff for tax-exempt financing.

WASHINGTON - In some of its 32 Build America Bond audits, the Internal Revenue Service has raised concerns about whether premiums paid for bond insurance could disqualify the bonds as BABs and jeopardize the federal subsidy payments made to the issuers, according to bond lawyers and IRS officials.

Underwriters often push municipal issuers not to hire financial advisors and, if an issuer insists on working with one, prod them to retain broker-dealer FAs, an independent FA firm warned a Securities and Exchange Commission member earlier this month.

WASHINGTON - The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has entered into a ground-breaking agreement with the Internal Revenue Service under which it will provide the IRS with municipal market data and documents to help enforce tax law requirements for muni securities.

WASHINGTON - The Senate confirmed two nominees to the Securities and Exchange Commission early Friday, ensuring the agency will not have vacancies as it grapples with rulemaking mandates imposed by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Friday he will schedule a vote the week of Oct. 31 on a bill that would provide $60 billion for transportation and infrastructure and authorize the establishment of a national infrastructure bank.

A disclosure regimen that gives the Securities and Exchange Commission authority to set baseline standards might work for the traditional municipal securities markets, but not its riskier outposts, an independent financial advisor warned in an article last week.

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service plans to audit certain bond issues used by nonprofit organizations based on reviews of the bond-related information they file with the agency, IRS officials and tax lawyers said.

Proposals to limit the tax-exemption on municipal bonds get short shrift from the majority of market participants, but some state and local government experts on Tuesday seemed resigned to the notion that tax-reform efforts will inevitably do just that.

WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department's Federal Insurance office is seeking input from the industry and public for a report it must write and submit to Congress early next year on how to modernize and improve the regulatory system for insurance companies, including monoline bond insurers.

RBC Capital Markets LLC was fined $95,000 and ordered to pay almost $33,000 in restitution to investors for unfair pricing of municipal bonds, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority reported Monday.

WASHINGTON - Two congressmen joined issuers in urging the Governmental Accounting Standards Board to retool or withdraw a proposal that would change how cash-strapped states and localities report pension liabilities, saying the new standards would prove destructive in the current economy.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced Monday that it will extend the terms of nine board members beyond Sept. 30, 2012, to ensure it has three classes of seven members with staggered terms.

WASHINGTON - House Financial Services Committee Republicans are urging the joint supercommittee to significantly scale back the Dodd-Frank Act and its derivatives provisions, as well as reduce the size of the community development block grant program.

SAN ANTONIO - State and local governments must rally to defend the federal tax exemption for munis, a market expert warned Thursday, saying only they can persuade members of Congress about its importance.

SAN ANTONIO - At its bond attorneys' workshop, the National Association of Bond Lawyers elected new officers, who will serve one-year terms, and announced four new board members.