The Council of Development Finance Agencies (CDFA) is pleased to announce that Representatives Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) and Darin LaHood (R-IL) have introduced the Modernizing Agricultural and Manufacturing Bonds Act (MAMBA) in the U.S. House of Representatives as H.R. 5422. MAMBA would modernize the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) as it relates to small issue bonds, specifically the private activity bond rules for first-time farmers and manufacturing bonds.

Tennessee's Opportunity Zones directory is now live. The new tool makes it easy for communities to connect with developers and opportunity funds.

Government-funding legislation that the House is set to vote would extend a host of expired and expiring tax breaks. A manager's amendment to one of the two "minibus" spending bills agreed to overnight adds the extensions of the temporary tax breaks, known as "tax extenders," to the measure.

Powered by the Sorenson Impact Center, Forbes is debuting the Forbes OZ 20: The Top Opportunity Zone Catalysts. Comprised of 10 trailblazing community organizations and 10 innovative OZ funds, the Forbes OZ 20 shines a light on the players harnessing the new tax policy to unlock transformative economic potential and create lasting change in America's overlooked communities.

The Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates low is providing stimulus to a once contracting Wall Street business: underwriting municipal bonds. State and local government debt sales may surge to a record in 2020, extending this year's boom, as borrowing costs hold near the lowest in over half a century, according to forecasts from some of the market's biggest underwriters.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development yesterday announced nearly $200 million in grant awards to 52 Native American Tribes and Tribally Designated Housing Entities (TDHEs) across the Nation for new housing construction, housing rehabilitation, and critical infrastructure projects. Many of the grantees are located in Opportunity Zones.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced a proposal to modernize the agencies' regulations under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) that have not been substantively updated for nearly 25 years.

States and cities are getting increases in federal aid for community development, transit and highways under a 2020 federal budget agreement expected to be approved by the House and Senate.

Over the next six years, Washington, D.C., plans to issue $5.1 billion in bonds to keep up with area population growth projected at more than a million people over the next two decades. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments predicted more than a million people will be added to the D.C. area by 2045, and the district plans to fund about $8.5 billion in projects in the next six years to meet its expected needs.

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