The United States Government Accountability Office ("GAO") issued a follow-up report to a study conducted in June in response to recent data breaches at federal agencies. The report offered recommendations to improve government-wide cybersecurity initiatives. In the report, GAO identified a number of challenges faced by federal agencies regarding threats to cybersecurity which include: designing and implementing a risk-based cybersecurity program; enhancing the oversight of contractors who provide IT services; improving security-incident-response activities; responding to breaches of personal

U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) reintroduced the Master Limited Partnerships Parity Act ( S. 1656). An identical bill, H.R. 2883, was reintroduced in the House by Representative Ted Poe (R-TX). The legislation, which has bipartisan sponsors, was introduced in the two previous Congressional sessions. The bill amends Section 7704 of the Internal Revenue Code to permit income and gains from a number of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies to be classified as qualifying income for Master Limited Partnership ("MLP") status. Master Limited Partnerships are publicly traded partnerships

On July 6, 2015, the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held in Franklin California Tax-Free Trust v. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico that the federal Bankruptcy Code preempted Puerto Rico's Debt Enforcement and Recovery Act (the "Recovery Act"). Under the Bankruptcy Code, Puerto Rico's municipalities are excluded from chapter 9 relief. Consequently, in June 2014, Puerto Rico passed the Recovery Act to establish "a debt enforcement, recovery, and restructuring regime for the public corporations and other instrumentalities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico during an economic emergency."

The NYSE halted trading before noon and resumed trading before the end of the day due to what the NYSE described as internal technical issues. SEC Chair White announced that the SEC was in contact with the NYSE. Lofchie Comment: The trading halt at the NYSE will pose an interesting challenge to the regulators. Will they respond to the NYSE's technical failure by bringing an enforcement action? Previous cases demonstrate that enforcement actions are simply not an effective means of preventing future technology failure. Instead, the regulators need to encourage information sharing that will

The SEC announced that the Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies will hold a public meeting by telephone conference. The meeting is scheduled for July 15, 2015. The meeting will focus on public company disclosure effectiveness and the regulatory treatment of so-called "finders" that assist companies in capital raising activities. See: SEC Press Release; Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies.