Washington

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service has closed its audit of $308 million of variable-rate bonds issued by Murray City, Utah, in a 2003 conduit health care transaction without any change to the bonds’ tax-exempt status.

Sen. John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., has introduced legislation to extend stimulus law authorizations for qualified zone academy bonds and qualified school construction bonds through 2015 and allow the debt to be issued with federal payments to issuers.

WASHINGTON — A bill by House Republicans that would delay implementation of derivatives rules has sparked a firestorm of controversy, with officials and lawmakers trading jabs over the pace of regulatory reform.

WASHINGTON — Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., plans to soon introduce a bill that would require all new munis to be taxable direct-pay bonds with a 25% federal subsidy rate — a proposal drawing a frosty reception from issuers and underwriters.

Two Federal Reserve economists are refuting claims by some analysts that the muni market is headed for several billion dollars in defaults, calling the projections overblown and out of sync with past recessions.

At a meeting in Nashville last week, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board voted to further amend a proposed rule that would prohibit dealer-financial advisers from switching roles and acting as an underwriter and muni adviser on the same transaction.

WASHINGTON — Key Republican lawmakers introduced a bill Friday to delay implementation of derivatives rules by regulators and require them to hold hearings about compliance costs and regulatory alternatives.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $228.1 million of “green” bonds issued in February 2007 by the Syracuse, N.Y., Industrial Development Agency to determine if they violated tax laws.

DENVER — Examiners for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency are worried about concentrations of municipal bonds held by national banks, and have begun asking risk officers to evaluate their exposures, an OCC official said.

DENVER – Examiners for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency are worried about concentrations of municipal bonds held by national banks, and have begun asking risk officers to evaluate their exposures, an OCC official said.

WASHINGTON — A House oversight committee hearing slated to examine state and municipal debt Thursday devolved into an extended debate about collective bargaining, featuring two sitting governors from opposite ends of the political spectrum.

WASHINGTON — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined Jefferies & Co. $1.5 million for failing to disclose that it was earning additional compensation when selling new-issue, auction-rate securities to clients.

WASHINGTON — President Obama announced the framework of a plan Wednesday to shrink the deficit $4 trillion over 12 years, and urged House and Senate leaders to appoint teams to negotiate a final bipartisan plan by the end of June.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission should rank nationally recognized credit rating agencies based on performance and should help investors hold them accountable in civil lawsuits over unjustifiable inflated ratings, a bipartisan congressional panel recommended Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — At a meeting Thursday and Friday in Nashville, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will tackle a host of muni adviser issues, including whether it will require financial advisers to pay fees to help defray the self-regulator’s increasing costs.

WASHINGTON — Independent financial advisers blasted the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board for its draft muni-adviser fiduciary duty rule, saying it targeted independent FAs while virtually exempting underwriters, some of which market themselves as advisers.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission staffs plan to hold a two-day roundtable in May to discuss the schedule for implementing rules for swaps and securities-based swaps, they announced in a release issued Tuesday.

Sen. Ron Wyden on Tuesday underscored his opposition to tax exemptions for new muni bonds, saying it is inefficient and that tax-credit bonds would benefit a broader set of taxpayers, not just high-net-worth individuals.

WASHINGTON — House Transportation Committee chairman Rep. John Mica on Monday charged the Obama administration failed to justify many of the high-speed rail and so-called TIGER transportation grants it made to state and local governments.

WASHINGTON — High-speed rail and community development block grant funds were among the $2 billion of cuts in a “bridge” continuing resolution enacted Saturday, which narrowly averted a federal government shutdown.