Washington

A proposed House bill to treat investment grade and actively traded municipal securities as high quality liquid assets received support from members of a House Financial Services Committee panel as well as banking experts during a hearing on Wednesday.

States will be hard-pressed to maintain their credit quality if they attempt to fund infrastructure needs solely through traditional tax-exempt debt financing, Standard & Poor’s said in a new report.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Oct. 16 that the federal government will assist parts of the state that suffered significant infrastructure damage in recent natural disasters.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s proposed changes to extend its gift rule to municipal advisors “remain unclear in crucial areas” and “do not go far enough to prevent abuses” by both MAs and broker-dealers, the National Association of Municipal Advisors said.

Economic study says privately financed Texas bullet train could generate billions of tax dollars for state and local governments.

The District of Columbia’s recent institutional investor conference is likely to lead to increased demand for its bonds, the city’s chief financial officer said.

The Treasury Department is now estimating that the extraordinary measures it’s been using to preserve the U.S. borrowing capacity since the debt limit was reached will be exhausted by Nov. 3 – two days earlier than a previous estimate.

A bipartisan bill offered in the House would extend the Qualified Zone Academy Bond program by providing $400 million of volume cap for the bonds in each of 2015 and 2016.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ordered San Juan-based Santander Securities on Tuesday to pay $6.4 million for supervisory failures related to Puerto Rican municipal bonds.

Rebecca Olsen, deputy director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s office of municipal securities, has concerns about municipal advisor misconceptions she has heard about who can advise in the municipal market and who can be considered an independent registered municipal advisor.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Municipal Securities is weighing whether to provide legal interpretive guidance to help municipal advisors determine if they are acting as an adviser or broker-dealer when working with an issuer on a bank loan.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel warned Thursday that Congress and the Executive Branch should not hurt two federal loan programs for infrastructure: the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act and the Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing programs.

Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, D-P.R., has introduced a bill that would authorize the Treasury Department to guarantee future bonds issued by Puerto Rico and its authorities if it finds they have meaningfully improved the management of their finances.

Six advocacy groups are urging two key Senate Republicans to keep Congress from providing Puerto Rico with access to Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection.

Congress needs to raise the debt limit before Nov. 5, the date around when the Treasury Department is expected to exhaust the “extraordinary measures” it has been using to preserve the U.S. borrowing capacity, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told lawmakers.

Utah Treasurer Richard Ellis has been tapped to serve a second three-year term as a public member of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.

Washington State Treasurer James McIntire announced late Wednesday that he is pleased with the results of the state’s general obligation bond sale this week, including its first ever green bonds.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., asks the House to move quickly on multiyear transportation bill to avoid disruptions this fall.

The House and Senate approved a measure on Wednesday that would avert a federal government shutdown and fund federal departments and programs through Dec. 11.

The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered 22 municipal securities underwriting firms to pay $4.12 million in civil penalties in the second round of what some lawyers said on Wednesday will be three total rounds of underwriter settlements under the commission’s Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative.