tldr- FCC (and many other federal agencies?) will perform orderly shutdown on Jan 3 if congress does not do the needful - it seems to be a game of chicken between trump and democrats over funding the "mexican Wall".
It's amazing that this is barely news in the rest of the world - I know the xmas timing makes news coverage / consumption weird but I completely missed how serious this had got.
some background
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_shutdowns_in_the_...
list of govt shutdowns in the past
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_shutdowns_in_the_...
(...) Up to three (4) employees will be retained to provide oversight or conduct (...)