Washington

The House Financial Services Committee is scheduled today to begin debating the first two pieces of regulatory reform, and its vote will set a critical marker before the chamber’s final negotiations.

The Federal Railroad Administration was so swamped with applications for the $8 billion of high-speed rail funding authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that it is delaying until the winter its announcement of the grant winners.

WASHINGTON — State and local governments and development finance agencies that can currently issue bonds to finance clean energy could soon be able to make federally guaranteed loans to finance the projects.

PHILADELPHIA — The Securities and Exchange Commission cannot set up a corporate-style disclosure regime for the municipal market under its rules because it does not have the statutory authority to do so, the SEC’s muni chief told financial advisers here yesterday.

WASHINGTON — Groups representing student loan bond issuers, port authorities, and airports are asking Congress to permanently exempt private-activity bonds from the alternative minimum tax and allow all current PABs to be refinanced to obtain the exemption

WASHINGTON — Guggenheim Partners LLC wants to be the first in the municipal market to “strip” the tax credit from tax-credit bonds and isn’t waiting for the Treasury Department to issue guidance on the matter.

WASHINGTON — A Securities and Exchange Commission official asked a congressional committee yesterday to strengthen its draft bill to regulate over-the-counter derivatives so that all securities-based swaps are treated as securities. However, the request was met by resistance from the panel’s chairman and another regulator.

The National Governors Association adopted a policy opposing federal restrictions on public-private partnerships after a multiyear transportation authorization bill introduced in the House proposed creating a federal office to oversee see P3s on highways that receive federal aid.

CHICAGO — The market for tax-credit bonds created by the federal stimulus is expected to take off despite a sluggish start and remaining questions surrounding the so-called tax-stripping option, said participants at The Bond Buyer’s Municipal Finance in the Stimulus Era conference here yesterday.

Interactive Data Corp. and Pluris Valuation Advisors LLC have teamed up to provide what they contend will be first-of-its-kind daily pricing data for illiquid student loan and other municipal auction-rate securities.

WASHINGTON - The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board yesterday issued draft amendments to its Rule G-37 that would require banks and bank holding companies to disclose on a quarterly basis the contributions that their political action committees make to municipal issuer officials.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus unveiled health care reform legislation yesterday that would require bond-financed and other nonprofit 501(c)(3) hospitals to conduct regular assessments of community health needs, implement financial assistance programs, and limit how much they could bill certain patients and how far they could go to collect.

So many state and local governments are in fierce competition for $1.5 billion of discretionary grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation that it may be impossible for most of them to receive funding.

The Senate is likely to decide this week whether it will join the House in approving funds that could be used to establish a national infrastructure bank and pay for high-speed rail projects.

In a surprising development, the Treasury Department announced yesterday that tribal governments in 19 states allocated $1 billion of economic development bonds for 58 projects will be able to issue the debt as taxable Build America Bonds and receive direct-payments equal to 35% of their interest payments.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board issued guidance yesterday that will streamline the disclosure of so-called backer information on electronic trade confirmations sent to institutional investors in municipal securities transactions.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department took another crack at long-pending regulations for bond-financed solid-waste disposal facilities yesterday, issuing updated rules for the second time after the original ones proposed in 2004 were criticized.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has censured and fined White Plains, N.Y.-based Belle Haven Investments LP $32,500 for failing to timely report municipal securities transactions and for failing to enforce written supervisory procedures, FINRA said yesterday.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has censured and fined White Plains, N.Y.-based Belle Haven Investments LP $32,500 for failing to timely report municipal securities transactions and for failing to enforce written supervisory procedures, FINRA said yesterday.

WASHINGTON — Issuers of direct-pay Build America Bonds will be able to receive their subsidy payments from the Treasury Department electronically beginning in 2010, a top Internal Revenue Service official said yesterday.