Shutdown Stalls Tech and Telecom Oversight Across Washington

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.

The 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.

The 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.

FCC

At 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. 

According 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.

The shutdown has also halted routine transactions at the FCC.

In 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. 

The 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.

The 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.

Commerce Department

At the Commerce Department, which oversees trade, manufacturing, and research programs, a vast majority of its 43,000 employees have been furloughed.

The 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.

Commerce 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.

Some federal permitting work needed to move broadband projects will continue during the shutdown and some will not. 

While 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. 

Certain expedited permitting processes, such as reviews under the FAST-41 program, were classified as “excepted activities” and will proceed. 

The 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.

FTC

The 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.

Roughly 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. 

The 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.

DOJ

The Justice Department was also expected to seek delays or extensions in its civil litigation as the shutdown continues. 

Although 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.

While 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. 

The 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.

“Companies facing enforcement actions may get some breathing room but ultimately, the shutdown will add costs, unpredictability, and strategic complexity,” said Wiley Rein attorneys.

Office of Science and Technology Policy 

At 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.

About 750,000 federal employees are currently forgoing their regular pay as the shutdown nears the end of its first full calendar week.