Washington

AASHTO Executive Director Frederick G. "Bud" Wright has spent more than 42 years working in the transportation sector.

The muni market officially got much of what it has spent years fighting for on Thursday, when President Trump signed the banking bill that makes tradable, investment grade municipal securities high-quality liquid assets under federal banking rules.

The IRS notice warns that federal law, not state law, controls how payments for federal income tax purposes are characterized.

Muni market groups got a long-awaited win when the House passed banking legislation classifying certain munis as high-quality liquid assets, even if it wasn't as big a win as hoped.

Federal Reserve officials said the economic outlook warranted another interest-rate hike “soon” and signaled they would welcome a modest overshoot of their 2% inflation target, indicating they're in no rush to tighten more aggressively.

The bank deregulatory bill passed by Congress on Tuesday would also make fewer banks systemically important and close a legal loophole that had allowed banks to defraud Puerto Rico investors.

Early returns indicate there have been some problems but firms seem to be working through them in complying with the new markup rules, regulators and industry officials said Tuesday.

Lawmakers in the 27-member Florida delegation in the House are divided about whether more private-activity bonds should be used for Brightline's 235-mile passenger rail line.

The IRS is focusing on $435.2 million of Series 2014A senior lien revenue refunding bonds and $75.87 million of Series 2014C second lien revenue refunding bonds.

Rising short-term rates and a lower corporate tax rate have already pushed some municipal issuers out of bank loans and back into the traditional muni space, analysts said.