I've been a federal IT contractor for 8 years, and this government shutdown hits different when you know how broken these systems already are.
The FTC just furloughed a third of its workforce right when they're supposed to be fighting Amazon and Meta in court. The DOJ suspended most civil litigation, which means their antitrust cases against Google and Apple are basically frozen.
Here's what actually happens during these shutdowns: agencies lose institutional memory because contractors disappear, critical systems run on autopilot with nobody monitoring them, and everything that was already behind schedule gets pushed back months.
I worked through the 2018 shutdown - saw agencies running Windows Server 2012 with no backup plan because the IT staff was furloughed. They lost months of data because nobody knew the root password to critical systems that needed emergency maintenance.
The FCC losing 81% of its staff means telecom oversight disappears right when broadband infrastructure decisions matter most. Consumer complaint systems go dark, spectrum management stops, and licensing services halt.
The timing is almost satirical. While regulators can't afford to keep the lights on, AI companies are planning $2.8 trillion in infrastructure spending. Tech giants get a free pass to consolidate power while their government watchdogs are literally shut down.
CISA's cybersecurity monitoring runs on skeleton crew during "cybersecurity awareness month." The irony would be hilarious if it wasn't so fucking dangerous.
Federal IT infrastructure, as documented by government oversight, is held together with duct tape and prayers on a good day. During shutdowns, it becomes genuinely life-threatening when critical systems fail and nobody's authorized to fix them.
The real impact isn't just delayed court cases - it's the message this sends. Tech companies know they can do whatever they want for the next few weeks because regulators are offline. Expect some aggressive moves while the cops are away.