Key Points
- FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr says many activities at the agency are suspended while the government is shut down.
- Congress failed to pass a new appropriations bill in September.
- More than 1,000 FCC employees are furloughed due to the lapse in funding.
A prolonged shutdown of the federal government provoked by a lapsed in Congressionally-appropriated funding has impacted the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) ability to regulate telecommunication service providers, broadcasters and other covered industries, the head of the agency said this week.
Speaking at an event on Monday, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr acknowledged things had “slowed down a bit” at the agency since Congress failed to pass a new budget at the end of September.
“There are a fair number of negative consequences that we’re already seeing at the FCC from the shutdown,” Carr said.
On a normal day, the FCC operates with a staff of nearly 1,300 full-time, part-time and contract workers. During the shutdown, that number dropped to around 250, with more than 1,000 workers and contractors furloughed due to a lapse in funding.
Carr and two other FCC commissioners, Olivia Trusty and Anna Gomez, are still working through the shutdown, but many of their staff members are not. Non-essential workers were also told to go home, and are forbidden from conducting government business while they are furloughed. That prohibition even extends to remedial tasks like checking work e-mails, which have been abandoned with out-of-office messages set since the first week of October.
The FCC continues to work on matters that are connected to national security and life-saving events, and will adopt a number of business-related initiatives at their monthly open meeting later this week. But action on non-critical matters — including some that commissioners will adopt through a vote on Tuesday — are suspended until the government re-opens. That includes processing broadcast license applications and renewals, enforcing fines against violators and scrutinizing public complaints about regulated companies and services like cable TV, broadband Internet and wireless phone.
