Washington

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.

WASHINGTON — The development of a 17,000-mile national high-speed rail network would cost $600 billion, or $30 billion per year through 2030, Andy Kunz, president and chief executive officer of the U. S. High Speed Rail Association, said here at a conference yesterday.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service has determined that bonds issued by a university medical school to finance or refinance items used by a nonprofit hospital are considered obligations of a state governmental unit and therefore tax-exempt, the IRS said in a private-letter ruling released this week.

Transportation officials and an advocacy group in Virginia are battling over whether a Virginia or District of Columbia judge should decide whether drivers on the Dulles Toll Road are being illegally charged tolls used to back bonds issued for the Dulles Metrorail project.

Maple Grove, Minn., has disclosed that the Internal Revenue Service has initiated an audit of $53.8 million of bonds it issued in 2005 to finance renovations and construction to two health care facilities.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced yesterday that it is changing its Real-time Transaction Reporting System to increase the time dealers have to report trades late and make corrections to previously reported trades.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department’s Inspector general for tax administration has found the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt bond office cannot determine if states are complying with volume cap limits for private-activity bonds.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Transportation’s inspector general is warning that at least 10 airport improvement program grants distributed by the Federal Aviation Administration under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act “may have questionable economic merit or could involve recipients that have had grant management problems.”

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board plans to soon propose revising its Rule G-37 on political contributions to require municipal securities dealers, their muni professionals, and political action committees to disclose the political contributions they make to bond ballot election campaigns, the board announced yesterday, following its quarterly meeting last week.

WASHINGTON — State and local housing finance agency officials could barely contain their excitement at the Obama administration’s unveiling yesterday of its long-awaited bond purchase and liquidity program.

WASHINGTON —The Obama administration yesterday unveiled a long-awaited temporary bond purchase and liquidity program designed to help state and local housing finance agencies that have been forced to curtail or shut down their programs during the financial crisis.

SAN FRANCISCO — Count Washington Treasurer James McIntire as satisfied with his inaugural venture into Build America Bonds, as well as the state’s first negotiated bond sale since 1997.

The National Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies sent an “urgent appeal” to the Obama administration last week asking it to quickly announce a long-expected $35 billion bond purchase and liquidity program, warning that a rapidly approaching deadline could drastically limit the program’s effectiveness if it is not unveiled soon.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced Thursday that it has promoted two of its in-house attorneys.

LAS VEGAS — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is making a push to expand its presence in the nation’s health care sector by ramping up its long-standing FHA mortgage insurance program for hospitals.

The Federal Railroad Administration last week released an early draft of a national rail plan that includes alternative-financing strategies that could involve bonds.