Washington

Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., yesterday named Lily Batchelder chief tax counsel of the Senate Finance Committee.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has filed an administrative complaint against David Lerner Associates Inc. and its head trader, William Mason, charging they excessively marked up some 1,538 municipal bond transactions over a two-year period.

A position the Internal Revenue Service is taking regarding $150 million of student-loan revenue bonds under audit could have ramifications for the entire tax-exempt student loan bond industry, market participants said last week.

A group of 11 California issuers are charging that an affiliate of Goldman Sachs & Co., J Aron & Co., is pressuring a member of the group to remove Goldman as a defendant in its civil suit charging that 36 Wall Street and other firms participated in a vast bid-rigging conspiracy for municipal swaps and investment agreements.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused the former manager of two Schroders Investment Management municipal bond mutual funds of tipping his family members about impending distress to the funds and urging them to sell their shares.

WASHINGTON — Reliance on volatile sources of tax revenue that swing in boom-and-bust cycles led to budget woes most states are currently facing, according to a new report published by the Tax Foundation.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission announced yesterday that it has promoted Gerald Hodgkins to become an associate director in its division of enforcement.

WASHINGTON — A bond provision in a recently unveiled climate change bill appears to be broader than intended and would allow electric cooperatives and potentially the federal government to serve as conduit borrowers on tax-exempt and Build America Bond deals.

WASHINGTON — State and local officials yesterday urged members of a House Ways and Means Committee panel to create and capitalize a national infrastructure bank, but neither they nor the lawmakers could agree on how to finance or structure the bank.

Two senators last night unveiled a bill that would make the $30 million small-issuer limit for bank-qualified bonds permanent and index it to ­inflation.

WASHINGTON — Energy and climate change legislation unveiled yesterday in the Senate would create a $3 billion tax-credit bond program for vehicles powered by natural gas, allow private-activity bond financing for advanced nuclear power facilities, expand a nuclear loan guarantee program, and provide $2 billion of competitive grants for transportation projects.

WASHINGTON — The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has temporarily suspended a $650 million deal for its Metrorail extension project, citing market volatility. However, the delay will not affect construction, authority officials said.

GE Funding Capital Market Services Inc., a subsidiary of General Electric Capital Corp., does not agree with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s plans to file charges against it in connection with an industry-wide investigation of guaranteed investment contracts and derivatives, but is discussing the matter, including a “potential resolution,” with SEC staff.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service are seeking public input on which projects should be included on the 2010-2011 priority guidance list.

WASHINGTON — Congressional appropriators will be hard-pressed to provide more funding for high-speed rail for fiscal 2011 unless there is clear evidence that the $10.5 billion lawmakers approved for the sector has been used by state and local governments, a congressional staffer said yesterday at a rail industry meeting here.

Bonds backed by federally guaranteed student loans are subject to greater short-term basis risk because of a mismatch in the way the interest rate on the bonds is calculated compared to the way the Department of Education sets interest on the underlying loans that flow into bond trusts, according to a report released by Fitch Ratings yesterday.

The Hood River Valley Parks and Recreation District in Oregon has disclosed that it is entering into the Internal Revenue Service’s voluntary closing agreement program to protect the tax-exempt status of $2.5 million of general obligation bonds it sold in 1998.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt bond office this fiscal year plans to close 1,200 examinations — more than double its all time high of 581, its director says.

WASHINGTON — An amendment to financial regulatory reform legislation that would impose a broad fiduciary duty on financial services firms when they give advice and recommendations to public entities and pension funds is pitting dealers against advisers in the municipal market.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission is launching a nationwide inquiry into the municipal market that will lead to recommendations for specific statutory and regulatory changes to better protect investors, an SEC official said at the Investment Company Institute general membership meeting here Friday.