FCC To Suspend Most Operations Thursday if the Partial Government Shutdown Continues (fcc.gov)

The Federal Communications Commission will suspend most operations in the middle of the day January 3 if the partial government shutdown continues, the agency has announced [PDF]. In a statement, it said: In the event of a continued partial lapse in federal government funding, the Federal Communications Commission will suspend most operations in the middle of the day on Thursday, January 3. At that time, employees will have up to four hours to complete an orderly shutdown of operations. However, work required for the protection of life and property will continue, as will any work related to spectrum auctions, which is funded by auction proceeds. In addition, the Office of the Inspector General will continue operations until further notice. The Commission on Wednesday will release a Public Notice detailing the effects the suspension of operations will have, including on electronic filing and database systems, filing deadlines, regulatory and application fee payments, transaction shot clocks, and more. The Public Notice will be available on the Commission's website, www.fcc.gov.

Comments

Shutdown is kind of a joke

[SuperKendall]

Look at those list of qualifications for the things that are not really shut down.

Basically "anything that is really at all useful carries on".

That's just for the FCC but the general trend carries across the whole government.

For just one example - you can still update passports... and most national parks are still open.

I think this shutdown may last a while, because I 'm not sure there's much pain that most non-government people will see...

Re: Shutdown is kind of a joke

[Luckyo]

The problem with your example is that such hypothetical agency was likely formed in a response of a long term trend causing some kind of a severe disaster due to long term growth of animal population.

Stoppage of such agency would not result in short term losses, but it may lead to economic disaster in half a decade. Because in many fields, government is the last line of defence acting when short term thinking corporations fail. Be it handling an oil spill, damage to overall farming output due to wrong kind of short term benefit long term catastrophic fertilization methodology and chemistry, or national defence.

Which brings us to difference between the government and corporation, and one of the few of Trump's actual (as opposed to those numerous imagined by sufferers of TDS) flaws. He has problems segregating "government functions that cannot be carried on like a corporation because of government being the last line of defence with no backup" and "government functions that are not the last line of defence, and where government's role can be at least to a significant extent picked up by private sector". We've seen this in many of his moves where he has treated government like a CEO treats a company. National government by design needs to take in account the long term effects of its polities, because the scenario of breakdown of government is nothing like a corporate bankruptcy. In case of corporate bankruptcy, government steps in with everything from its judiciary to its executive to manage this failure. When government breaks down, there is nothing above it to do the same. Society itself, and everything within it will collapse should this occur, and it will take a long time and a lot of damage for next governing body to re-emerge from anarchy that follows such events in human history, often with state borders themselves getting altered dramatically by such an event.

So in this regard, this is a dangerous game. Both for Trump and his ever increasingly hysterical opposition which is now engaging is absurd accusations which appear to mostly be "we agree with your views on border security, but because we must be seen in disagreement with you due to our audience largely suffering from TDS, we'll just alter our position to one that of diametric opposite of views we had just a month ago". At this point, given this rapid turnaround on both this issue and "pull the troops out of wars = bad" swing that happened effectively overnight, it's very difficult to see the current political events as those that are occurring between two rational actors invested in the future of their state. All while Trump clearly indicates that his primary interest is the future of the state with his actions.

It's going to be interesting to see how this unfolds, and if the more sane centrists can take control back within the democratic party to return to some kind of politics of the principles and actually be able to agree with Trump on points that were theirs just a few months ago, such as importance of having secure borders or that having soldiers participating in undeclared wars is bad.

Re:Shutdown is kind of a joke

[Weirsbaski]

Look at those list of qualifications for the things that are not really shut down.

Basically "anything that is really at all useful carries on".

There's a small but growing list of jobs being done by federal employees who are not currently being paid. You might count this as "carrying on", but most rational people would categorize this right into "unsustainable".

* Disclaimer: yes, I know these employees will eventually get back pay, but the ability to work-then-back-pay is the reason "anything that is really at all useful carries on".

Re: Shutdown is kind of a joke

[Known Nutter]

And fuck your sweeping generalizations.

Re: Shutdown is kind of a joke

[Patent Lover]

You are a dick, but I suspect you know this.

Gradual Vice Clamp [Re:Shutdown is kind of a joke]

[Tablizer]

Basically "anything that is really at all useful carries on".

But "useful" is a matter of degree and timing. For example, Federal permits are often required for various business activities. Many of those are being postponed, meaning businesses have to wait. It can muck up schedules, hurting profits.

I'm sure you have a personal "to do" list, and many of those items can be postponed some without much problem, but after a while it will catch up to you and cause direct problems.

...and most national parks are still open

But toiletry and garbage-related maintenance is on hold. I shouldn't have to explain the details of those downsides.

It's stupid that our system allows this so easily. It should have a cruise control mode that funds at existing levels until budget agreements are made. Stop throwing monkey wrenches into our civilization; I LIKE civilization. It seems many don't. Let's not #MakeCavesGreatAgain.

One question:

[Locke2005]

Why are the executive branch and congress still receiving full pay and benefits?

Re:Why do Democrats hate America?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope. I aint payin for some bullshit metal slats in the middle of the fucking desert. Fuck that. No, FUCK that.

No money from Mexico, no wall. That was the promise, which has now been exposed as just another lie from trump to his brain dead supporters.

Keep it closed until he leaves office or gets impeached for all I care. trumptards can suck on this one. It's their own fault for voting for loser trump.

trump's administration is so corrupt and ineffectual that the government might as well be closed anyway.

Re:Why do Democrats hate America?

[hey!]

Even if Mexico *were* to pay for it, the Trump Administration would need authorization from Congress because that's how the Constitution works. If Trump finds 5 billion bucks in the White House sofa cushions he couldn't just spend it; it'd have to go into the treasury and await appropriation, just like taxpayer money.

In every democracy I know of the legislature passes an annual budget which sets spending limits and priorities. It then creates authorizing legislation that creates or continues programs which spend the money. Finally it passes some kind of appropriation legislation which allows the money to actually be spent. Appropriation is the final step that allows the legislature to tweak exactly where the budgeted money goes.

In most countries failure to pass an appropriation bill requires the government to resign and call general elections, so it seldom happens. In the US this is not the case, but until around 1980, appropriations bills never failed. After 1980 frequency of appropriations bill failures have gradually increased, but the issues have always been things like tax increases or disagreements over whether budgeted and authorized spending should actually go forth.

This is the first government shutdown in US history where the objective was to spend money that was never budgeted.

Re: Why do Democrats hate America?

[jamesborr]

Seems to me a perfectly workable compromise could exist here. Trump could agree to no additional funding for the wall, while the Democrats could agree to redirect all social services spending (i.e. food stamps, housing assistance, education funding, medical assistance, etc.) currently being spent on people here illegally, being spent instead on building a wall and repatriating those not here lawfully.

Re:Amateur radio

[Jiro]

That's one of the tricks of the shutdown. If the government forces you to use their services, when the services get shut down, the part about being forced to use them doesn't get shut down as well. That artificially makes the shutdown 1) particularly harmful to the public, and 2) particularly good for the government, compared to a real shutdown.

If the government actually shut down, you wouldn't be able to apply but you wouldn't need to, since there would be no government to require you to apply.

It's the same reason why the "shutdown" doesn't result in the TSA being removed from airports and people being able to travel without them.

Re:More Fake News from someone who did not RTFA

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Except the EPA isn't monitoring pollution
Companies are still legally responsible for pollution so it's not like they are doing to start while monitoring is suspended.

And when the EPA hasn't approved some process or equipment as complying, does the company shut down or run without approval (and thus be violating regulations). I suppose some can use old stuff. But yeah, I imagine a lot of companies will take advantage of this window to handle any disposal issues that they were stockpiling.

the FDA isn't approving drugs
Fake News, applications still being processed.

Did you even read your link? Yes, the applications that were started in 2018 for new drugs are being continued if there's enough money left in their dedicated accounts. No new drugs approvals are even being considered as of Jan 1 2019, and the companies that started approvals in 2018 cannot add more money to those dedicated accounts in 2019 to finish it.

Social Security is shut down (if you're on it you keep getting checks, but you cannot get on it)
Fake news, that kind of bullshit only happens under Democrats who want you to think the government is more important than it is or in fact stoppable. Applications will be processed, just with some delay.

Did you even read your link? It's talking about SSD, which while a component of SS is pretty small. It's talking about how hearings cannot be scheduled. And yes, paperwork is still being processed. However they cannot do the benefits validation until they're back. Which is a vital part to actually getting checks.

you can still update passports... At consulates, not everywhere.
More fake news, can mail a passport in from anywhere to get renewed or apply at any USPS office

Yes, the mail service is still working. Yes the government didn't destroy all forms. But you cannot go to a passport office to get a passport. While some things can happen by mail, not all.

Most national parks have some pre-shutdown funding still available. They'll all be closed if this keeps going on
Takes money to shut down most parks. Why even close them? The stuff Obama did was just plain mean, like putting barricades around national monuments you could just walk up to. None of that happening this time.

Got it, you don't think they should shut down the parks. I mean, they will, because they do every shutdown. But this is just a "why". It's not happening yet cause there's still a little cash left in those accounts.

But yes, mothballing things does cost money. Government shutdowns tend to cost more than just keeping the government running, and they also don't produce the services we expect from government.