U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai refused a request from House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., to conduct an “emergency briefing” about the agency’s oversight of telecoms involving the sale of geolocation data, ArsTechnica reports. A spokesman for the FCC said that while the agency “has been investigating wireless carriers' handling of location information,” due to the government shutdown, the FCC was “required to suspend that investigation earlier this month because of the lapse in funding, and pursuant to guidance from our expert attorneys, the career staff that is working on this issue [is] currently on furlough.” Editor's Note: In an article for The Privacy Advisor, Angelique Carson, CIPP/US, recently looked at the impact of the shutdown on federal privacy offices. 
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