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Government Shutdown Stalled Federal 'Do Not Call List' and Other Consumer Functions

TMCnet Contributor

Many Americans shrugged off the recent 16-day government shutdown due to a Congressional impasse, since it didn’t directly affect them. Sure, it put some 800,000 Americans temporarily out of work and cost the nation billions of dollars, but “so what?” they wonder. If they are foes of telemarketing calls and a subscriber to the federal do-not-call list, they might change their tune if they knew one little-known fact: the government shut down closed the federal do-not-call registry.

The reason for this was the shutdown of the entire Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC (News - Alert)) Web site, which is where individuals hoping from relief from telemarketing calls sign up to be on the registry. The shutdown also meant that victims of identity theft looking for advice on what steps to take were not able to obtain critical information during those 16 days. 


Image via Shutterstock

Had the shutdown gone on longer, it would have let telemarketers off the hook in having to make their quarterly updates to their lists, which are issued to amend older lists with new consumers who have put their names on the list.

According to CNN, the shutdown had effects on other consumer-facing agencies. The Consumer Product Safety Commission reported that only 23 of its 540 employees were working during the closure of the government, which meant that there were no inspections at U.S. ports or any field investigations. One of the jobs of these inspectors is to ensure that children’s toys meet federal safety standards.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Deborah Hersman noted that more than 1,000 investigations were halted because of the partial government shutdown. A horrific bus crash that occurred in Tennessee during the shutdown was not examined by the NTSB, as per usual, because workers at that agency were furloughed. That crash left eight people dead and 14 more injured.

Finally – and this could be one of the scariest results of the shutdown – the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed that it had to halt most of its routine food inspections during the crisis. This occurred during the course of an ongoing salmonella outbreak in chicken that has thus far sickened a total of 317 people in 20 states.

Edited by Alisen Downey