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Cyrus Farivar - Oct 7, 2013 8:05 pm UTC

As the American federal government shutdown nears the week mark, there’s been another casualty: a planned surveillance review panel.

The Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, which was announced by President Obama in August, was scheduled to meet last week for the first time. However, according to a recent Politico report, the group did not convene.

“I simply thought that it was inappropriate for our group to continue working while the vast majority of the men and women of the intelligence community are being forced to remain off the job,” Michael Morell, a board member and a former CIA director, told Politico. “While the work we’re doing is important, it is no more important—and quite frankly a lot less important—than a lot of the work being left undone by the government shutdown, both in the intelligence community and outside the intelligence community.”

All board members have deep ties to the American government.

Politico also quoted an anonymous source noting that the Office of Director of National Intelligence initially determined that the board could continue before later reversing itself. The group has been given deadlines to provide an initial report to Obama within 60 days of beginning its work and to submit a final report due on December 15, 2013.

Similarly, the related Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board has been disrupted due to the government shutdown.

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