Washington

WASHINGTON — Congress last night was poised to approve a second stopgap measure to fund the federal government, including transportation and bond-related programs, for another seven weeks.

PHOENIX — The issue of how much information should be disclosed for certain variable-rate demand obligations has put the National Association of Bond Layers at loggerheads with the Securities and Exchange Commission staff for years. The ongoing dispute boiled over once again during NABL’s Bond Attorneys Workshop here this week.

PHOENIX — Any state or local government that issues Build America Bonds in the next fiscal year can expect to receive a compliance query from the Internal Revenue Service, according to Clifford Gannett, director of its tax-exempt bond office.

WASHINGTON — Some municipal issuers and their advocates yesterday came out swinging against the Securities and Exchange Commission.

WASHINGTON — Financial advisers in the municipal market would have to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission under an amendment added to the Investor Protection Act of 2009 yesterday by House Financial Services Committee members.

Congress should repeal the Tower Amendment and other securities law exemptions for municipal issuers so that the Securities and Exchange Commission can require them to comply with certain disclosure requirements as well as with generally accepted governmental accounting standards, SEC commissioner Elisse Walter said Wednesday night.

The federal government is expected to forego more than $26 billion in annual revenue each year from fiscal 2008 through fiscal 2012 because of what tax-exempt bond financing of infrastructure projects costs federal coffers, the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation said in a report this week.

WASHINGTON — Democratic and Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee yesterday espoused completely different views about the effect of an amendment added to the credit rating agency bill that focuses on ratings of municipal securities.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will likely seek ­legislation “sometime next year” to expand its authority over the municipal market, SEC chairman Mary Schapiro told reporters yesterday after speaking at the Securities Industry and ­Financial Markets Association’s annual conference in New York.

WASHINGTON — What a difference a year makes. At this time last year, the municipal market was being tossed about in the throes of an historic financial maelstrom that ultimately swallowed up the likes of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns & Co., and muni bond insurers’ triple-A ratings.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department yesterday announced that it had allocated $2.2 billion in clean renewable energy bond authority to finance 805 projects by public power providers, cooperative electric companies, and governmental entities.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $61.3 million of auction-rate securities issued in 2005 by the Coastal Bend Health Facilities Development Corp. of Corpus Christi, Tex.

WASHINGTON — The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association is not opposed to legislation that would require the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to have a majority of public members, but wants Congress to make sure they have financial expertise and that the MSRB has more time for the transition, the new head of its Washington office said last week.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board yesterday announced several improvements to its Electronic Municipal Market Access Web site, including a new search feature that will allow market participants to more easily find specific continuing disclosure documents.

WASHINGTON — The District of ­Columbia expects today to competitively sell $500 million of general obligation tax revenue anticipation notes, its largest note offering ever, according to city officials.

Senate transportation leaders are pushing for a six-month extension of programs that provide funding to states and metropolitan areas for highways, bridges, and other surface transportation projects, Environment and Public Works Committee chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., told officials gathered in California over the weekend.

WASHINGTON — As House lawmakers this week vote on a bill that would require a majority of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s members to be public, the new chairman is stressing that the MSRB’s existing dealer-dominated structure has served the market and investors well since its creation in 1975.

WASHINGTON — The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s municipal securities division plans to honor Citi’s Frank Chin with its 2009 Honor Roll Award at a luncheon today, in recognition of his significant contributions to SIFMA and the muni industry.

WASHINGTON — The public sector should provide 55% or 65% of high-speed rail costs through gasoline and other taxes, Richard Harnish, executive director of the Chicago-based Midwest High Speed Rail Association, said at a conference here Friday.

Fitch Ratings plans to weigh several factors unique to qualified school construction bonds, but will still approach the securities in basically the same way it handles traditional tax-exempt offerings, the agency said in a report to be issued today.