In This Issue:

Leading the Past Week and Looking Ahead; Legislative Branch; Executive Branch; Miscellaneous; and Upcoming Hearings.

Excerpt from Leading the Past Week and Looking Ahead -

With the shutdown finally over, Congress is slowly coming back to normal, as last week the Senate was in Recess, and the House adjourned early so that members could attend the funeral of Florida Congressman Bill Young. However, the fallout, and impact from the shutdown on the government, and perhaps more importantly, the economy continued, with the White House announcing that they anticipate that the shutdown will have “subtracted” from job growth. The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) Chairman Jason Furman told reporters that 120,000 fewer jobs will be expected through October 12th due to the effects of this “self-inflicted wound.” The CEA also estimates that the shutdown will decrease fourth quarter GDP growth by 0.25 percent. As a result of the economic stumbling block presented by the shutdown, experts now expect the Fed to begin the ‘tapering’ of its $85 billion per month asset purchases in March, later than previously forecasted. The government shutdown will also affect tax filing season, as the IRS announced that it will need to delay tax season by one to two weeks to accommodate for additional time to program and test the systems it uses to process tax returns.