Washington

The Senate is expected to vote Tuesday on a measure to keep the federal government and some of its bond-related programs funded through March 4, by which time Republicans will control the House and wield considerable bargaining power in the Senate.

WASHINGTON — The outlook for public power utilities is uncertain for next year, as federal regulators ramp up efforts to implement greenhouse-gas regulations and states and regions push for developing more renewable energy sources.

WASHINGTON — Municipal market participants are disappointed that the tax bill signed into law by President Obama Friday does not extend the Build America Bond program and other key bond-related tax incentives, but will urge lawmakers to reconsider them next year.

WASHINGTON — Bank of America, now Bank of America Merrill Lynch, has returned more than $6.7 billion to its auction-rate securities customers and satisfied its obligations under a settlement announced Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission over alleged abusive ARS sales practices.

WASHINGTON — Three former executives of General Electric Co. subsidiaries — Dominick Carollo, Steven Goldberg and Peter Grimm — will stand trial in March 2012 for allegedly participating in wire-fraud schemes and conspiracies in connection with the bidding for investment contracts for municipal bond proceeds over a seven-year period.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is giving the market advance notice that, as of Feb. 14, it will begin requiring dealers acting as underwriters, placement agents, or remarketing agents to provide its EMMA website with certain information about the continuing disclosure agreements for new bond issues.

The House is expected Thursday to take up an $857 billion tax package that contains neither an extension of the Build America Bond program nor the increased small issuer limit for bank-qualified bonds, both of which expire Dec. 31.

Overall tax-exempt and taxable municipal bond issuance will increase to more than $502 billion next year from $435 billion this year if the Build America Bond program expires on Dec. 31, according to an annual survey conducted by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has censured and fined New York-based Citigroup Global Markets Inc. $400,000 for violations of securities rules involving municipal and corporate bonds.

Senate Democrats are pushing for an omnibus appropriations measure to keep the federal government and bond-related programs funded through Sept. 30, the end of fiscal 2011, instead of moving forward with a continuing resolution that was approved by the House last week.

The Internal Revenue Service appears to be escalating its audit of $15 million of school improvement bonds that were issued by Cave Creek Unified School District No. 93 of Maricopa County, Ariz., in 2006 to finance a renovation project.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board's proposed changes in public pension accounting and reporting standards, if adopted, will not have immediate credit implications, but probably would make the reporting of year-to-year unfunded pension liabilities more volatile, Standard & Poor's will say in a report Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — Researchers for the Center on Law and Public Finance are refuting the notion that partisanship has dominated the issuance of Build America Bonds.

WASHINGTON — Since the Securities and Exchange ­Commission and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board rolled out separate registration systems for municipal advisers this fall, there has been ­widespread confusion over the requirement that advisers register with both regulators.

WASHINGTON —The Senate is expected Tuesday to vote on a tax compromise measure without amendments, including one by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., that would have extended the Build America Bond program through 2011 with a 32% subsidy payment.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $117.45 million of variable-rate demand utilities system subordinate-lien refunding revenue bonds that were issued in 2004 by Colorado Springs, Colo., for Colorado Springs Utilities to refund some 1994 bonds.

State and local budget challenges will put pressure on municipal credits and will drag overall economic growth next year, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s semiannual economic projections released Monday.

WASHINGTON — Federal transportation officials Thursday reclaimed $1.195 billion of high-speed and intercity passenger rail grants from Ohio and Wisconsin. The funds will be parceled out to several states, the U.S. Department of Transportation said after warning last month that incoming Republican governors in the two states must use the funds for rail or lose them entirely.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Thursday filed a six-count indictment against three former UBS bankers — Peter Ghavami, Gary Heinz and Michael Welty — for participating in fraud schemes and conspiracies in connection with the bidding of investment and other contracts for municipal bonds from as early as 2001 until 2006.

WASHINGTON — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission Thursday unanimously agreed to propose pay-to-play restrictions and other business-conduct standards for swap dealers and major swap participants working with “special entities” such as states and localities. The pay-to-play restrictions mirror new Securities and Exchange Commission rules for investment advisers.