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  "description": "Litigation, merger reviews, and permitting all set to slow",
  "path": "/shutdown-stalls-tech-and-telecom-oversight-across-washington/",
  "publishedAt": "2025-10-10T20:24:30.000Z",
  "site": "https://broadbandbreakfast.com",
  "tags": [
    "_confirmed that_",
    "_reports earlier_",
    "_public comments_",
    "_81 percent_",
    "_on Day 7_",
    "_a notice_",
    "_43,000 employees_",
    "_continue_",
    "_89 percent_",
    "_under the FAST-41 program_",
    "_on Oct. 1_",
    "_400 employees_",
    "_said_"
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  "textContent": "WASHINGTON, Oct. 10, 2025 – Ten days into the U.S. government shutdown, federal agencies that regulate the nation’s technology and telecommunications sectors remain largely paralyzed by furloughs.\n\nThe uncertainty for federal workers deepened Friday, when White House Office of Management and Budget director **Russell Vought** _confirmed that_ federal “reduction-in-force” plans were underway. The announcement followed _reports earlier_ in the week that the White House may seek to deny back pay to furloughed employees once the shutdown ends.\n\nThe shutdown has left much of Washington’s digital policy workforce paralyzed, stalling a long list of regulatory actions that were supposed to occur this week.\n\n### _FCC_\n\nAt the Federal Communications Commission, a round of _public comments_ on the proposed Charter–Cox merger never arrived. At the agency, where _81 percent_ of staff were furloughed, nearly all filing deadlines were tolled, with a few exceptions.\n\nAccording to a Wiley Rein update issued _on Day 7_ of the shutdown, a few FCC filing deadlines will remain due as scheduled. The exceptions are filings tied to enforcement matters, network outage and disaster reporting, certain spectrum auction filings, and responses to Broadband Data Collection challenges. All other filings and procedural deadlines were paused until normal operations resume.\n\nThe shutdown has also halted routine transactions at the FCC.\n\nIn _a notice_ released the day of the funding lapse, the Wireline Competition Bureau announced that all pending Section 214 discontinuance and transfer applications, including some from AT&T, GCI Communication Corp., Seiontec Systems, and Consolidated Communications, would not be automatically granted under the FCC’s typical streamlined rules.\n\nThe freeze was also delaying major transactions before the FCC, including Charter Communications’ $34.5 billion bid to merge with Cox Communications, with all such deals remaining on hold until the agency reopens.\n\nThe FCC has said that if Capitol Hill reached a budget deal on Monday for example, Charter-Cox comments not filed during the shutdown would be due on Wednesday.\n\n### _Commerce Department_\n\nAt the Commerce Department, which oversees trade, manufacturing, and research programs, a vast majority of its _43,000 employees_ have been furloughed.\n\nThe agency said that “most research activities” at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have ceased during the shutdown, halting work on cybersecurity and AI standards. However, some projects related to semiconductor manufacturing have continued, with staff in the CHIPS Program Office funded through the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022.\n\nCommerce said that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which manages federal spectrum and oversees key broadband expansion programs, would continue some key functions during the shutdown, retaining 77 percent of its staff.\n\nSome federal permitting work needed to move broadband projects will continue during the shutdown and some will not.\n\nWhile permitting work will _continue_ at the Bureau of Land Management, major agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, which furloughed _89 percent_ of staff, have put permitting reviews on hold.\n\nCertain expedited permitting processes, such as reviews _under the FAST-41 program_, were classified as “excepted activities” and will proceed.\n\nThe FAST-41 program applies only to major infrastructure projects valued at more than $100 million, making it largely irrelevant to most broadband builds funded by the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, which NTIA oversees.\n\n### **_FTC_**\n\nThe FTC announced _on Oct. 1_ that many of its consumer services would not be available during the shutdown, including its fraud and identity theft tiplines and the national “Do Not Call” registry used to block unwanted telemarketing.\n\nRoughly two-thirds of the FTC’s workforce, which enforces competition and consumer protection laws in the tech space, has been furloughed, with about _400 employees_ remaining on the job during the shutdown.\n\nThe furloughs were expected to slow several active antitrust cases, including those against Amazon and Meta, as FTC attorneys seek extensions and court hearings are postponed.\n\n### **_DOJ_**\n\nThe Justice Department was also expected to seek delays or extensions in its civil litigation as the shutdown continues.\n\nAlthough the department’s contingency plan keeps most employees on the job, the Antitrust Division was operating with only about 60 percent of its nearly 800-person staff.\n\nWhile the DOJ said criminal litigation “will continue without interruption,” civil litigation, like current cases brought against Google and Apple, “will be curtailed or postponed” as much as possible.\n\nThe slowdown comes just weeks after the department began a remedies trial in its ad tech case against Google and continues a separate lawsuit against Apple, alleging the company has a smartphone monopoly.\n\n“Companies facing enforcement actions may get some breathing room but ultimately, the shutdown will add costs, unpredictability, and strategic complexity,” _said_ Wiley Rein attorneys.\n\n### _Office of Science and Technology Policy_\n\nAt the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, 14 of its 23 employees have been furloughed, according to the administration’s contingency plan. The document doesn’t specify which activities were continuing, though a spokesperson said the office is “continuing to execute” on the president’s _AI Action Plan_ despite the reduced staff.\n\nAbout 750,000 federal employees are currently forgoing their regular pay as the shutdown nears the end of its first full calendar week.",
  "title": "Shutdown Stalls Tech and Telecom Oversight Across Washington",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-11T05:44:49.445Z"
}