Washington

A short-term federal government shutdown will have minimal impact on issuers, though some areas with a significant federal presence like Washington D.C. may see some lost economic activity, ratings agencies said.

A default would be unprecedented and would have the potential to be catastrophic, the Treasury Department warns in a paper issued Thursday.

The Internal Revenue Service has either resolved tax issues or closed audits with no changes to bonds in New Jersey, Louisiana, and Nassau County, N.Y., according to event notices filed on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's EMMA system.

The board of Mercer Island School District in the Seattle area approved a $100 million bond election for school construction and expansion.

The American College of Bond Counsel re-elected its officers at a meeting in Chicago.

Broker-dealers are concerned about the exemptions provided for underwriters in the Securities and Exchange Commission's municipal advisor registration rule, saying it hampers their ability to "pitch ideas" to issuers.

California will try to revive residential Property Assessed Clean Energy by setting up a reserve fund that would reimburse Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for any losses incurred from PACE liens.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers is working on projects aimed at shedding more light on the varying strength of general obligation bond pledges, as well post-issuance tax and disclosure compliance, NABL president-elect Allen Robertson said in a recent interview.

Elaine Greenberg, former chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission's municipal securities and public pensions enforcement unit, has joined the Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP's office here, the firm announced Monday.

The Nebraska Public Power District has agreed to pay $350,000 to the Internal Revenue Service to settle a tax law dispute regarding $50.36 million of Build America Bonds it issued in 2009.

The Securities and Exchange Commission unanimously adopted a registration rule for municipal advisors, establishing that they have a federal fiduciary duty to clients if they provide advice, compensated or not, that is related to bonds or other municipal financial products and involves recommendations based on the specific needs of a municipal entity.

The sentencing of former UBS banker Mark Zaino, who pleaded guilty of municipal bond bid-rigging, was rescheduled to Oct. 24 in a New York federal court.

Holders of debt issued by Detroit; Harrisburg, Pa.; Jefferson County, Ala.; and Stockton, Calif.; are unlikely to get outcomes even as favorable as investors during the Great Depression, according to a report issued Thursday by Moody's Investors Service.

A tax-exempt bond advisory panel to the Internal Revenue Service has recommended that the agency publish three documents to provide guidance to issuers of small governmental bond issues and conduit borrowers of small 501(c)(3) nonprofit bond issues about complying with arbitrage rebate and yield restriction requirements.

Washington is planning to sell $295 million of bonds backed by federal highway grants next week to continue financing its floating bridge project over Lake Washington.

The West Coast Infrastructure Exchange, has released a draft of standards to help select the public infrastructure projects it will support for private investment.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $604.14 million of general obligation limited tax bond bank bonds that were issued by Clark County, Nev., in 2006.

Reforms to the tax-exemption of municipal bonds should be "careful and deliberative, particularly in how they treat previously-issued debt," a report from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said.

The multi-billion dollar Columbia River Crossing project may be financially viable as long as certain conditions are met, according to a top official in the Oregon State Treasury.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has filed revised amendments with the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to modify earlier rule change proposals governing retail order periods.