Washington

WASHINGTON — Moody's Investors Service plans in mid-April to move to a global scale for its municipal bond ratings so that they are more in line with its corporate debt ratings, after postponing the initiative during the height of the financial crisis.

WASHINGTON — Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd yesterday introduced a massive, reworked financial regulatory reform bill that would require the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s municipal securities office to report directly to the SEC chairman, significantly raising the profile of the muni market.

WASHINGTON — The Build America Bonds program would be extended for three years, but the direct-pay subsidy rate would shrink from the current 35% of interest costs to 33% in 2011, 31% in 2012 and 30% in 2013, under a draft of a second jobs bill unveiled yesterday by House Ways and Means Committee chairman Sander Levin, D-Mich.

A third former employee of CDR Financial Products — Douglas Alan Goldberg — has pleaded guilty to three criminal counts for participating in bid-rigging and fraud conspiracies in connection with municipal finance investment and other contracts, the Justice Department announced yesterday.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is seeking public comments on two matters related to private-activity bonds: final regulations for those issued to finance power facilities and the form issuers must file to elect a carryforward of unused volume cap.

WASHINGTON — The District of Columbia tomorrow will issue $160 million of revenue bonds for the country’s largest non-commercial radio broadcaster, National Public Radio Inc., which has bolstered its listener base over the last 10 years, showing a steady increase in audience in contrast to other mainstream media companies.

A tax bill amendment that was introduced last week by Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Byron L. Dorgan, D-N.D., would establish a pilot program for six airports to collect potentially unlimited passenger facilities charges.

WASHINGTON — A new jobs bill expected to be introduced today by House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., will include an 18-month extension of the Build America Bonds program, a committee spokesperson said.

WASHINGTON — A second former employee of CDR Financial Products Inc., Matthew Adam Rothman, has pleaded guilty to participating in bid-rigging and fraud conspiracies with other firms that provided investment agreements to states and localities, the Justice Department announced late Thursday.

WASHINGTON — Despite a round of aggressive lobbying by non-dealer financial advisers and former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt, the municipal market section of the massive financial regulatory bill that Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd is expected to release Monday is not likely to be much different than the original draft floated late last year.

WASHINGTON — A high-level Department of Transportation official told lawmakers yesterday that the Obama administration will support “ambitious local initiatives” for large-scale projects, such as a 12-line transit project in Los Angeles.

WASHINGTON — The top Republican tax-writer in the Senate yesterday warned colleagues that provisions in the House-passed jobs bill that offer high subsidy rates for Build America Bond-type programs would allow Wall Street banks to pocket more in underwriting fees.

The Senate yesterday approved a legislative package that would extend bond-related and other expiring tax provisions, while market participants pushed key members of Congress to make permanent two stimulus provisions that give banks more incentive to buy tax-exempt debt.

Congressional foot-dragging on federal transportation policy reverberated again at the state level this week, as the Missouri Department of Transportation decided not to put projects out for bids, making March the second consecutive month the state canceled bids due to federal funding uncertainty.

WASHINGTON — The Joint Tax Committee has released revenue estimates for Obama administration budget proposals that would extend most of the stimulus law’s municipal bond provisions — including the higher qualified small-issuer limit for bank-qualified bonds — through the end of calendar year 2011.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board today is expected to file long-awaited rule changes with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would implement the final phase of its transparency system for auction-rate securities and variable-rate demand obligations.

WASHINGTON — Any congressional extension of the Build America Bonds program will likely come with a gradual drop in the subsidy rate, and lawmakers may never reduce the rate to the 28% the Obama administration proposed in its fiscal 2011 budget, the top lawyer for the House tax-writing committee told treasurers meeting here yesterday.

The U.S. budget deficit is soaring into “unfamiliar territory” and could reach a “tipping point” where investors no longer want to buy Treasury securities, Congressional Budget Office director Douglas W. Elmendorf warned at a conference here yesterday.

A Securities and Exchange Commissioner, who caused a furor among issuers last fall by calling for the repeal of the Tower Amendment and securities law exemptions for municipal securities issues, has begun meeting with them to get their views on what actions the SEC should take.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Charles Grassley is opposing the expanded bond provisions included in the jobs bill the House passed Thursday, arguing that the higher subsidy rates in the legislation will just boost profits for Wall Street underwriters.