This afternoon, the House passed the CARES Act, (H.R. 748), a broad, $2 trillion dollar stimulus package in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The legislation is exepected to be signed into law by President Trump later Friday. The BDA applauds Congress for taking quick and effective action to stem the economic uncertainty associated with the…
Category: Fed and Stimulus Activity
BDA Applauds Senate’s Efforts to Support Municipal Market
Last night, (March 26, 2020) the Senate passed the CARES Act, (H.R. 748), a broad, $2 trillion dollar stimulus package in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The BDA applauds the Senate’s quick and effective action to stem the economic uncertainty associated with the virus crisis. We note particularly Section 4003 of the Act providing…
Senate Stimulus Takes Steps to Add Liquidity to Municipal Market
After extensive effort from the BDA and its membership, the Public Finance Network, and issuers and market participants nationwide, the Senate has included provisions aimed to stabilize the municipal market in a sweeping $2 trillion dollar stimulus package that will likely pass later today. While at this time it is uncertain if the House will return…
MSRB Suspends Price Variance Alerts for Dealers
Board Also Extends Comment Date for Proposed Governance Enhancements Today (March 23, 2020) in response to the significant impact that the spread of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) is having on regulated entities, the MSRB is temporarily suspending the transmission of the price variance alerts for trades reported to MSRB’s Real-Time Transaction Reporting System (RTRS) effective immediately.…
Senate Stimulus Fails on Procedural Vote
Last night (March 22, 2020), the robust, $1.6 trillion dollar Senate stimulus package failed 47-47 on a procedural vote in an effort to advance the package to open debate. A procedural vote on an amended draft is expected by 1:00pm(ET) in the Senate today. The House continues simultaneous discussions on a separate stimulus package, however…
Fed Acts on BDA Request to Support Municipal Market
Today, March 23, 2020, following submission of a letter in which the BDA urged the fed to take action to support the municipal market, and ongoing calls from a broad range of market participants, the Federal Reserve announced extensive, new measures that will: Facilitate the flow of credit to municipalities by expanding the Money Market…
Action Needed Today: Please Contact Your Senator in Support of the Bond Market Emergency Relief Act
The BDA continues to aggressively advocate in support of the addition of language to the Senate stimulus bill from the Bond Market Emergency Relief Act. Directly working with Members of Congress and staff, Official BDA statements of support as reported this past week in Bloomberg, Politico and the Bond Buyer, and Working with BDA members and our…
BDA Statement on Municipal Market Conditions and the Need for the Federal Reserve to Provide Immediate and Broad Based Support
“Considering municipal market disruption and current economic uncertainty, the BDA believes the Federal Reserve should provide temporary, meaningful broad based support to the municipal market during these unprecedented times including to VRDNs and longer dated securities.” – Mike Nicholas, CEO, Bond Dealers of America The Bond Dealers of America is the Washington, DC based trade…
Fed Expands Money Fund Program to Include Municipal Funds
Today, (March 20, 2020) the Federal Reserve announced that they would expand the recently initiated Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility to include municipal funds. Following support of the BDA and the Public Finance Network, this expansion to its emergency program is aimed to further provide liquidity to money market mutual funds by providing dealer…
House Committee Considers Muni Market Support
The House Financial Services Committee released an outline of Chair priorities for next steps in stimulus response to the Coronavirus outbreak. Included in the outline were two municipal bond provisions aimed to help the market by supporting issuers. While all details are yet to be made public, the draft calls for: Support State, Territory, and…