Research · Law and policy
Legislative watch
Federal bills and enacted changes that affect private activity bonds for industrial borrowers. A bill is shown as pending until it is signed into law; status was last checked on 2026-10-28 against the bill text and the sources linked under each item.
Modernizing Agricultural and Manufacturing Bonds Act (MAMBA)
S. 2100 and H.R. 9100, 119th Congress · Pending
S. 2100 was introduced on 17 June 2025 (Sens. Ernst and Warner, with Sen. Hyde-Smith) and referred to the Senate Committee on Finance; the House companion, H.R. 9100, was introduced on 2 June 2026. Neither has passed either chamber.
- Raises the small-issue limit in IRC §144(a)(4)(A) from $10 million to $30 million and sets $30 million in §144(a)(4)(G), both indexed for inflation.
- Raises the per-borrower aggregate limit in §144(a)(10) from $40 million to $120 million, indexed.
- Extends the “manufacturing facility” definition to facilities producing certain intangible property and to functionally related facilities on the same site.
- Raises the first-time farmer limit in §147(c)(2) from $450,000 to $1 million and repeals the separate used-equipment limit.
Sources: Bill text, S. 2100 (introduced), govinfo.gov · H.R. 9100 text, govinfo.gov · CDFA bill summary
Spaceport facilities as exempt facilities
Public Law 119-21 (signed 4 July 2025) · Enacted
The 2025 reconciliation act added spaceports to the exempt facility categories, on the framework that applies to airports, with a public-use exception and a rule for federally owned land under ground lease.
- Spaceport bonds need no volume cap when the facility is governmentally owned, as for airports.
- Treasury has not issued implementing regulations; counsel apply the statute directly.
Sources: Nixon Peabody: spaceport projects can now be financed with tax-exempt bonds
Raising the bank-qualified (small issuer) limit
Proposed in earlier Congresses (for example H.R. 3967, 116th Congress) · Not introduced (as far as we found)
Bills to raise the $10 million small issuer limit under IRC §265(b)(3) to $30 million have been filed repeatedly; we did not find a bill number in the 119th Congress. Even if enacted, private activity bonds such as small-issue bonds would remain ineligible for bank-qualified status under current drafting.
- Matters to issuers of governmental bonds and to the banks that buy them; it would not by itself change the cost of small-issue industrial bonds.
Sources: GFOA: bank-qualified debt
Verify the current status on congress.gov before relying on it. Pending bills change the law only if enacted, and effective dates usually apply to bonds issued after enactment.
Important information. Securitief Research is published by Securitief, operated by Applied America. Securitief is not a placement agent or underwriter and does not seek or receive compensation from any financing, including financings of issuers and borrowers discussed here. It is not acting as a municipal advisor and owes no fiduciary duty to any issuer or obligated person unless separately engaged in writing.
This material is general information. It is not tax, legal, investment or municipal advice, a recommendation, or an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Offers are made only by offering documents and only where permitted by state securities laws. State allocation procedures change; confirm current rules with the allocating agency and bond counsel.
Sources: SEC Form N-PORT and FDIC call reports (holdings), IRS and Census (volume cap and population), state agency publications. Issuer classification and aggregation are Securitief’s own and may contain matching errors; figures may be revised. No licensed index levels (MMD, BVAL, ICE) or EMMA trade data are used. Past holdings do not indicate future demand, pricing or the availability of financing. Interest on private activity bonds may be subject to the alternative minimum tax; tax treatment depends on the facts and the opinion of bond counsel.
Cite this page: Securitief Research, “Legislative watch,” October 2026, https://securitief.com/legislation.