Washington

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.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tells road planners to look at projects that eliminate bottlenecks and reduce traffic congestion.

Washington State will sell more than $900 million of bonds next week, including a negotiated retail sale of its first-ever green bonds followed by a competitive sale Sept. 30.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s pending fee changes will be unfair and excessively burdensome, dealer and advisor groups told the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts has released the final version of its set of best practices for state government general obligation bond disclosure, the first part of an ongoing update to a set of recommended best practices from 2001.

Brazos County wants a ruling from the state on property tax exemption of a bond-financed P3 dormitory at Texas A&M.

The National Conference of State Legislatures is urging Congress to not consider extending or making permanent the moratorium on state and local governments taxing Internet access unless it does so at the same time as or after it considers legislation that would allow states to require out-of-state online retailers to collect sales taxes.

Securities and Exchange Commission officials rejected bond lawyers’ suggestions that the settlements with 36 underwriters under the Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative contained specific parameters of continuing disclosure violations.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $91 million of Build America Bonds issued by the Minnesota Public Facilities Authority in fall 2010.

The Internal Revenue Service is working on more specialized template voluntary closing agreements, an official with the IRS' tax-exempt bond office said.

The U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust division is conducting a general inquiry into whether certain brokers’ brokers have engaged in anti-competitive practices with regard to pricing for secondary market and other municipal bond trades, according to industry officials.