Washington

The National Association of State Treasurers is using infrastructure finance as an argument to urge lawmakers to pass legislation reclassifying some munis as high-quality liquid assets.

The municipal market appears to be shifting away from its traditional retail-dominated status, which has implications for regulatory policy that's largely aimed at protecting the retail investor.

The report illustrates how federal, state and local laws must be changed if the Supreme Court rules in favor of South Dakota and against Wayfair Inc. in an online sales tax case.

Gerrard Bushell, CEO and president of the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, brings us up to speed on how new federal tax changes are impacting one of the nation’s largest municipal bond issuers. Andrew Coen hosts.

Some of the oomph for multifamily housing bonds comes from additional federal funding for public housing agencies which are partners in these bond deals while the remainder comes from programmatic changes in the law.

The Federal Reserve is facing a backlash over its lack of diversity in key positions after it emerged this weekend that John Williams, the current president of the San Francisco regional branch, is a front-runner to succeed William Dudley as head of the powerful New York Fed.

City and state groups credited Congress for supporting programs the administration wanted zeroed out, including the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grants program, which will get $2.6 billion.

Two regional Federal Reserve bank presidents said they favor raising interest rates twice more this year following a hike this week, but were open to shifting their views if the outlook warranted a different policy approach.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said he backed the Fed’s rate hike and would vote for others, even though inflation could potentially surpass 2%.

Congress' deficit-raising actions have made it more likely that munis would be targeted for cuts to raise revenues in infrastructure or other future bond-related legislation.