Unless you’ve just come out of hibernation, you probably know that there’s a temporary government shutdown in the United States right now. Until politicians agree on exactly how different branches of the government should be funded, only essential employees are going to work. Soon that will be the case at the FCC as well, its news release tells us.

The Commission is planning to go into “shutdown mode” this Thursday, January 3, “if funding still lapsed”. This means that almost all of FCC’s non-vital operations will be put on hold, including the approval of new smartphones and other devices ...