Washington

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department yesterday announced that it had allocated the second and final $1 billion tranche of tribal economic development bonds to 76 Indian tribes across the nation.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s proposal to lower the subsidy rate for Build America Bonds to 28% is creating investor uncertainty and could hinder the program, California Treasurer Bill Lockyer warned Sen. Barbara Boxer this week.

WASHINGTON — The Regional Bond Dealers Association announced Wednesday that it has tapped William Daly, the seasoned federal affairs director for New York City, as its senior vice president for government relations. He will start working for the group in early March.

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Tex., has introduced legislation that would authorize the use of Build America Bonds for the purchase or construction of land, buildings or other facilities located near a convention center.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s net assets fell to $26.39 million for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2009, down $1.65 million from the previous year as new underwriting assessment fees fell dramatically, according to an audited financial statement and annual report expected to be released by the board today.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in New York Monday said he will not decide until Feb. 19 whether to accept the Securities and Exchange Commission settlement with Bank of America over allegations it misled shareholders and the federal government about its merger with Merrill Lynch.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Federal Railroad Administration is currently evaluating options states could use to build high-speed rail, including ways to encourage multi-state projects, deputy administrator Karen Rae said in an interview yesterday.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is asking issuers of Build America Bonds and tax-credit bonds to weigh in on how much of a burden it is to file two new information returns for the bonds that will be released later this week.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission wants to hire outside municipal market experts, including traders and investment bankers, to work in its reconstituted municipal and public pension fund enforcement unit, Elaine Greenberg said Friday.

Policymakers should allocate 25% of all federal transportation funding to competitive programs across all modes of travel as they consider overhauling federal laws, according to a recent report by the nonprofit Bipartisan Policy Center’s National Transportation Policy Project.

Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd, who said Friday he plans to move forward with a massive financial regulatory reform bill without Republican support, told federal regulators that he wants the bill to include language that would give the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board oversight of pension fund placement agents.

The District of Columbia does not have any additional debt capacity and risks exceeding its self-imposed 12% debt-to-expenditures cap in fiscal 2011 unless about $350 million of its outstanding fixed-rate bonds are refunded, officials told members of the District Council Friday.

WASHINGTON — The National Association of Bond Lawyers yesterday joined the growing chorus of muni market groups pushing for an extension beyond the end of 2010 of two provisions in last year’s $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allowing banks to purchase tax-exempt bonds from issuers that otherwise might not have access to the market.

WASHINGTON — The House yesterday cleared legislation that would increase the debt limit by $1.9 billion to $14.3 trillion.

WASHINGTON — New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, joined by Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, has filed charges against Bank of America, its former chief executive officer Kenneth Lewis, and its former chief financial officer Joseph Price for allegedly duping shareholders and the federal government to facilitate a merger with Merrill Lynch.

The federal government expects to recoup through taxes most of the subsidies it pays on Build America Bonds, according to the federal budget released this week.

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats yesterday said they plan on Monday to take up the first of a series of jobs bills, which will include expansion of the Build America Bonds and TIGER grant programs, an extension of the transportation law, and transportation and water infrastructure funding.

WASHINGTON — Carla A. Young, a former Internal Revenue Service lawyer who worked on municipal bonds, has joined the law firm of Greenberg Traurig LLP as a shareholder in its Washington, D.C., and Tysons Corner, Va., offices, the firm announced yesterday.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday announced that William Hicks, who worked on a key muni case, has been named associate regional director of enforcement for the Atlanta regional office and that Rhea Kemble Dignam has been named director of the office.

Senate Democrats plan to unveil a “jobs agenda” as early as this morning that would extend surface transportation programs for a year, expand the Build America Bonds program, and augment the popular TIGER discretionary transportation grant program.