Washington

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.

Ernesto Lanza, the general counsel of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, has been tapped to serve as deputy executive director, the MSRB announced Monday. Meanwhile, a former investment banker has been chosen for a newly created market leadership role.

WASHINGTON — The prospect for a federal government shutdown grew more ominous Thursday, leaving state and local groups with unanswered questions about whether federal payments will be halted if lawmakers fail to reach agreement on a fiscal 2011 budget compromise before midnight Friday.

CHICAGO — The efforts of five Wisconsin school districts to recoup their ill-fated $200 million investment in collateralized debt obligations have received reinforcement in the form of possible Securities and Exchange Commission action against an investment bank for its role in the transaction.

WASHINGTON — Erik R. Sirri, former director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s trading and markets division, will oversee the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s muni market trade and pricing study, the MSRB announced Thursday.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Transportation has received more than 90 applications from 24 states, the District of Columbia, and Amtrak seeking a total of nearly $10 billion for high-speed rail projects — more than four times the $2.4 billion available from Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s cancellation of a project in his state.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s draft rule on gifts and gratuities could shut down muni advisers, the municipal market’s largest financial adviser is ­warning.

The top tax-writing lawmakers said Wednesday that while a debate about the tax-exempt status of state and local bonds will certainly be in the mix as part of a broader tax-reform debate, it is too early in the discussion to delve into specific issues.

SAN FRANCISCO — Wenatchee, Wash., finds itself on the hook for a hockey arena that didn’t pencil out the way consultants said it would.

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers on Tuesday moved forward with two legislative efforts to overhaul the U.S. tax code, which would either halt, or threaten, tax-exemption for new muni bonds.

WASHINGTON — Independent financial advisers are criticizing the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s draft changes to its rule on gifts and gratuities, warning they don’t go far enough to eliminate conflicts of interest.