The Senate passed legislation to extend tax breaks retroactively through 2014. The tax breaks had been set to expire on December 31, 2013. Previously, the House passed H.R. 5771 ("The Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014") on December 3, 2014. The extension, which will cost $41.6 billion dollars (without offsets), includes over 50 provisions, such as: bonus depreciation; research and development credits; production tax credits for producing electricity from wind, biomass and other renewable sources; the subpart F exception for active financing income; the exemption of certain interest-related

CME Group exchanges, including CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX, issued an Advisory Notice regarding Market Regulation Advisory Notice RA1308-5. The Advisory Notice provides revisions to three answers in FAQ's regarding CME Rule 534 ("Wash Trades Prohibited"). The Advisory Notice revises the answer to Question 8, which contains regulatory guidance on the necessity of ensuring that any freshening of long-position dates in certain futures contracts, which are settled via physical delivery against the oldest open long position, is not done in violation of Rule 534. Specifically, on January 2, 2015, CME

The CFTC approved an amendment to, and consolidation of, LCH.Clearnet Limited's orders of registration as a derivatives clearing organization ("DCO"). The approved amendment permits LCH.Clearnet Limited to provide clearing services for "swaps," as defined in the CEA and CFTC Rules, as well as all futures and options on futures, regardless of the underlying asset class. See: LCH.Clearnet Ltd Order of Registration as a DCO. Related news: CFTC Issues Extensions in Two No-Action Letters Regarding DCO and DCM (CFTC Letters 14-85 and 14-86) (June 25, 2014); CFTC Issues Three No-Action Letters

White House press secretary Josh Earnest confirmed that President Obama will sign the Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014. Congress passed the Act unanimously on December 13, 2014. The bill gives the President the authority to expand U.S. sanctions significantly against the Russian Federation regarding its continued intervention in Ukraine. By allowing the President to impose sanctions directly against foreign entities, the bill marks a departure from the Administration's approach under various Ukraine-related Executive Orders whereby U.S. persons are prohibited from taking certain actions

Finance Committee Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-UT) welcomed Republican Senators Dan Coats (R-IN), Dean Heller (R-NV) and Tim Scott (R-SC) to the Senate Finance Committee in the 114th Congress, where they began their service as its newest members. See: Press Release.