Washington

Decisions about project plans, agendas and priorities at the Governmental Accounting Standards Board will now be made by a majority vote of the organization's board, not solely by the board chair.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will hold a public roundtable on Tuesday, May 14, to discuss the SEC's December staff Report to Congress on Assigned Credit Ratings, which reviews possible conflicts of interest that arise under the so-called "issuer pay model" and recommends regulatory and statutory changes.

The Government Finance Officers Association's executive board has approved five new best-practice documents, including a paper recommending that issuers develop a policy to ensuring they adequately fund pension plans.

The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday voted 19 to 5 to recommend that the full Senate confirm Jacob Lew as the next Treasury Secretary.

Peabody Energy Corp., which led efforts to develop the mostly bond-financed, joint power agency-owned Prairie State Energy Campus, has received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission on the coal-fired plant's development.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has moved its library of electronic disclosures of dealers' political contributions to the EMMA system, the board announced Monday.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board should update its rule book to include training materials written for enforcement agents and references to related enforcement actions, and should clarify rules on fair dealing and financial advisors, according to the National Association of Bond Lawyers.

Citing the need to review millions of pieces of evidence, former Bank of America executive Phillip Dennis Murphy, who was indicted in July 2012 for scheming to rig bids for investment contracts, has waived his right to a speedy trial and requested a trial date of Feb. 3, 2014.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board should harmonize its rules with those of other regulatory agencies, conduct thorough analysis of the costs imposed by its rules and clarify language in the rules to make them less ambiguous for market participants and compliance examiners, said comment letters filed with the board in recent days.

Seven firms and two individuals have agreed to pay a total of $164,500 in fines and nearly $17,000 in restitution for violating trade, price and other rules of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.