Washington

WASHINGTON — The District of Columbia Council on Tuesday approved savings measures to increase reserve funds and reduce borrowing needs in an attempt to offset the drop in the district’s capital cushion resulting from the economic recession.

Democratic governors and senators yesterday pushed for the Senate to add an amendment to a tax-extenders bill that would provide federal funds to states to help them through their budget crises, with members expected to begin voting on the bill today.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has censured and fined Credit Suisse Securities LLC $10,000 for improper or late reporting of municipal securities trades.

WASHINGTON — House conferees debating financial regulatory reform legislation today are expected to vote on amendments that would require the Securities and Exchange Commission to register and regulate municipal financial advisers, replacing Senate language that would give such regulatory authority to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans have proposed an alternative bill to extend expiring tax-law provisions that would not include Build America Bonds, a major difference from pending legislation, which would extend the BAB program by two years while gradually reducing its subsidy rate to 30% from 35%.

The Treasury Department should issue guidance on the definition of issue price for Build America Bonds and proceed with 10 other regulatory projects on a priority basis, the National Association of Bond Lawyers told department officials in a recent letter.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar, R-Ind., has joined a growing number of senators pushing for climate-change and energy reform by introducing legislation designed to help utilities taper off their use of coal-fired power plants and spur the development of nuclear power.

WASHINGTON — Municipal market regulatory issues will not be studied for up to two years under changes to the base legislation Senate and House conferees are using to reconcile their competing legislative proposals to overhaul financial regulations.

Transportation stakeholders are concerned that the Obama administration has not released a set of reauthorization principles by the time Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said it would.

WASHINGTON — A group of Senate Democrats sent a letter yesterday to Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., urging them to add billions of dollars for transportation-related investments to the draft climate and energy bill the two recently unveiled.

WASHINGTON — The federal government should make tribal economic development bonds a permanent tool for Indian tribes and should consider raising or removing the current $2 billion ceiling on the program given the clear demand that exists for the bonds, an advisory committee said in a report sent to the Internal Revenue Service this week.

Several Democratic governors are lobbying to extend through June 2011 the increased federal Medicaid match they have been receiving since the passage of the stimulus last year.

ATLANTA — Dealers are calling for the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to revise and clarify several aspects of draft interpretive guidance that outlines the steps they must take to ensure the prices they charge customers when buying and selling municipal securities are fair and reasonable.

ATLANTA — The head of the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt bond office said yesterday that it’s premature for issuers to focus on the number of Build America Bond audits the IRS will conduct because the office is still gathering as much information about BABs as possible and ultimately wants to devote its energies to finding true abuses in the muni market.

As a U.S. Treasury Department bond program intended to help housing finance agencies nears its halfway point, results are lagging behind expectations, Standard & Poor’s warned in a report issued Tuesday.

WASHINGTON — Build America Bond issuers that inadvertently violate tax law requirements and voluntarily seek to correct them would have their federal subsidy payments reduced, rather than eliminated, if the Internal Revenue Service adopts recommendations an advisory committee presented to it yesterday.

ATLANTA — Municipal issuers are overreacting to recent developments surrounding the compliance program for Build America Bonds, a Treasury official said yesterday in an effort to tamp down ongoing concerns.

The Government Finance Officers Association approved policy statements Tuesday calling on the Governmental Accounting Standards Board not to move forward with its “fiscal sustainability” project and for the Securities and Exchange Commission to scrap plans to consider requiring floating net asset values for shares of money market funds.

Demand for federal high-speed rail funds has once again exceeded supply, as the Federal Railroad Administration confirmed this week that 23 states flooded it with a$137 million of applications for proposed projects.

ATLANTA — Government Finance Officers Association members are scheduled to vote this morning on a policy statement calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission to maintain a stable, $1.00 net asset value per share of money market funds and to scrap plans to consider a floating NAV.