Washington

House and Senate leaders may soon include a six-month extension of the current transportation law in an omnibus appropriations bill, as the Dec. 18 expiration date of the latest extension approaches, sources said Friday.

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve chairman Ben S. Bernanke yesterday cautioned lawmakers against pushing for a job-creation bill right now, saying the first federal stimulus law has not fully affected the economy and that it may be “early to do more fiscal actions.”

WASHINGTON — The Senate Finance Committee’s top Republican introduced legislation yesterday that would authorize another $2.2 billion of clean renewable energy bonds, while the House Ways and Means Committee is expected to introduce a bill next week that would extend a number of expiring tax provisions.

WASHINGTON — Large local school districts would not be forced to give up their unused qualified school construction bond allocations to states to keep them from expiring at the end of the year under legislation proposed yesterday by the top tax writers in the House.

House transportation leaders yesterday said they will push for as much as $69 billion of infrastructure grants to states to be included in any job-creation bill that is put forward and approve an extension of the current law.

The House Financial Services Committee yesterday approved the final two pieces of a package of legislation to reshape the financial regulatory system, paving the way for the full House to debate and vote on the measures as one omnibus bill next week.

Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., has introduced a bill that would create another type of tax-credit bond — clean renewable water supply bonds — and authorize the issuance of up to $6.2 billion of them through 2018.

A coalition of transportation, environmental, and housing groups is asking House and Senate leaders to limit infrastructure programs in any forthcoming jobs bill to just one year and to direct spending toward the rehabilitation and operation of existing infrastructure instead of new construction projects.

A federal appeals court last week rejected an appeal filed by William A. ­DiBella, former majority leader of the Connecticut Senate, and his consulting firm, North Cove Ventures LLC, to overturn a 2007 jury verdict and judgement against them for their involvement in a fraudulent pay-to-play scheme in connection with the state’s pension fund.

WASHINGTON — High-speed rail is the “newest gravy train” in Washington, D.C., with more than 50 public and private groups having registered in the last quarter to lobby for billions of dollars of federal aid — a threefold increase from a year ago, the Center for Public Integrity found in a recent investigation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission last week released final rule changes designed to impose additional disclosure and conflict of interest requirements on rating agencies registered as nationally recognized statistical rating organizations. At the same time, it issued proposed new rules that would impose additional reporting requirements on the NRSROs.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department Wednesday highlighted guidance on tax-credit stripping, Build America Bonds, and other programs stemming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as high priorities in its 2009-2010 priority guidance plan.

WASHINGTON — The District of Columbia could garner its lowest new-money, fixed interest rates ever when it couples income tax-secured revenue bonds with its first taxable Build America Bonds in an expected $661 million negotiated deal scheduled for early December.

WASHINGTON — Alliance, Ohio, disclosed last week that the Internal Revenue Service has concluded an audit of $50 million of hospital revenue bonds it issued in 2003 with no change to the tax-exempt status.

WASHINGTON — Treasury Department officials yesterday touted Build America Bonds as one of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s success stories and a driver of public and private investment, but could not quantify exactly how much the program is costing the federal government.

WASHINGTON — The American Bar Association’s section on taxation has asked the Treasury Department to clarify a number of points in tax-regulatory guidance of Build America Bonds and other new programs under the ­American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to ensure issuers don’t do ­anything when issuing the bonds or ­spending the proceeds that could jeopardize the federal subsidy on the bonds.

WASHINGTON — Tax revenues continued to fall in the July-to-September quarter of 2009 — the fourth consecutive quarter of decline — for all 44 states that reported their third-quarter results to the Rockefeller Institute of Government, according to its preliminary report released yesterday. Surprising revelations in the report include California’s relatively moderate year-over-year declines.

WASHINGTON — Market participants are increasingly concerned about provisions in Senate and House regulatory reform bills that are designed to address the level of sophistication of states and localities that want to engage in over-the-counter derivatives transactions.

Build America Bonds have been called the success story of 2009 as issuers rush to take advantage of the 35% interest payment subsidy offered by the federal government. Yet few are flocking to an even better offer — recovery zone economic development bonds, which offer certain issuers a 45% subsidy.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department this week allocated $29.1 billion to state and local housing finance agencies for temporary new-issue bond purchase and liquidity programs, but some small HFAs are warning the fees they would have to pay to participate in the purchase program are prohibitively expensive.