Washington

Issuer groups pushing for the Senate Banking Committee to add language in financial regulatory reform legislation mandating that municipal securities be rated on the same scale as other kinds of debt are getting a boost from an unlikely source: the Service Employees International Union, one of the largest labor unions in the country.

WASHINGTON — The current Build America Bond program is costing the federal government roughly three-quarters of a billion dollars a year, according to the Obama administration’s recently released budget documents.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has made some key additions to its senior management, hiring Amy Schabacker Dufrane as its chief administrative and human resources officer and promoting Al Morisato as its chief information officer.

Municipal infrastructure market participants believe that insufficient funding and the politicization of infrastructure are worse impediments to investments than corruption, earmark abuses, public policy instability, or poor creditworthiness of public authorities, according to a recent survey by KPMG LLP.

SAN FRANCISCO — Add ­Washington to the list of states worrying about ­liquidity.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration would like to make the Build America Bonds program permanent at a lower, so-called revenue-neutral subsidy rate, but the remainder of the proposed fiscal 2011 budget does not include any proposals to extend other stimulus programs due to expire at the end of the year.

WASHINGTON — President Obama in his fiscal 2011 budget yesterday proposed a $4 billion infrastructure bank to fund or finance worthwhile transportation projects.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is exploring whether to raise the fees it charges market participants, including for subscriptions to market data it collects.

WASHINGTON — President Obama is proposing $1.26 billion of spending authority for the Securities and Exchange Commission in fiscal 2011, a 12% jump over the $1.11 billion that the administration projects Congress will make available to the SEC for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget, released yesterday, estimates a $1.267 trillion deficit, or 8.3% of gross domestic product, and proposes raising taxes on wealthy Americans that could boost demand for tax-exempt municipal bonds.

WASHINGTON — The tax-exemption for the interest paid on all municipal bonds will cost the federal government an estimated $38.7 billion in fiscal 2011, according to President Obama’s proposed budget for that fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

WASHINGTON — Members of the Government Finance Officers Association’s governmental debt management committee on Friday unanimously agreed to propose a revised policy on direct-subsidy and tax-credit bonds that acknowledges Build America Bonds have emerged as a significant sector of the municipal market.

Several municipal issuers and their advisers last week criticized efforts by bond attorneys to help the SEC clarify its forthcoming disclosure guidance, complaining that it does not understand the unique sets of challenges confronted by municipal issuers and does not have the personnel to learn about them.

WASHINGTON — High-speed rail proponents rejoiced yesterday after President Obama announced the Federal Railroad Administration has awarded 31 states with a total of $8 billion of high-speed rail grants, the largest of which will go to California, Florida, and the Midwest region.

WASHINGTON — The Senate Thursday approved legislation to raise the debt limit to $14.3 trillion and ensure the Treasury Department will be able to keep open into 2011 its window for state and local government series securities, which municipal issuers purchase for refunding escrows to avoid earning arbitrage.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday voted 4 to 1 to approve a series of changes to its Rule 2a-7 on money market funds aimed at boosting the resilience of funds during market crises, and promised to move forward with additional rules in the future.

WASHINGTON — President Obama wants to freeze non-military discretionary spending for three years to save $250 billion over the next decade, but market participants in states, transportation, and other infrastructure sectors are not panicking yet.

WASHINGTON — Build America Bonds will cost $26 billion more over the next 10 years than previously estimated, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report issued yesterday.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board today will begin soliciting a broad range of nominees to serve on its board amid signs that Congress is likely to soon require the self-regulator to alter its composition so that a majority of its 15 members are “public” officials.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers yesterday released a long-awaited advisory on the federal securities law issues that arise when stripping tax credits from underlying taxable municipal bonds.