Today is November 10 2025. The longest government shutdown in modern history is still grinding through its fortieth day, even as the Senate advances a deal to flip the lights back on. At the same time, a different kind of switch flips today for every Defense Industrial Base contractor. The first phase of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification officially begins.
Most people will focus on the politics of the shutdown or the mechanics of the budget deal. This moment could be about something else. It is about whether the United States can defend its data, its supply chain and its warfighters while Washington lurches from crisis to crisis.
For every company that touches Department of War contracts, November 10 is now a line in the sand. CMMC enforcement begins, clauses start to appear in contracts, and noncompliant organizations will start to find themselves on the wrong side of the eligibility line.
What Forty Days Of Shutdown Really Broke
The shutdown began on October 1, when Congress failed to pass spending bills for the new fiscal year. Roughly 750,000 federal workers were affected, with many furloughed and many working without pay. The Congressional Budget Office has warned that an extended shutdown could permanently erase between seven and fourteen billion dollars from the economy, with up to a two percent hit to fourth quarter GDP if it stretches toward eight weeks.
That headline number hides a deeper operational story. Agencies that rely on annual appropriations have delayed grants, paused new awards and slowed procurement. Air travel has seen staffing driven delays. Safety nets like food assistance and housing support have required emergency patchwork.
From a national security perspective, the picture is even more serious. Civilian employees across the DoD/DoW, Veterans Affairs and other critical departments have already missed paychecks. That affects everyone from contract officers to cyber analysts to the people who process clearances and manage facilities.
A shutdown also sends a clear message to adversaries. When the federal government is distracted and underfunded, hostile actors know it. They read the same headlines we do and they understand that response times, oversight and coordination are all under strain.
Cybersecurity Took A Direct Hit
Cybersecurity is always a game of speed and coordination. Shutdowns slow both. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which leads federal cyber defense and critical infrastructure protection, has seen roughly two thirds of its workforce furloughed at various points during this shutdown. Essential functions continue, but everything around them gets starved. Hiring pauses, outreach slows, and joint exercises or assessments fall off the calendar.
At the same time, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, the law that gave companies legal protection to share threat intelligence with the federal government, expired on October 1 in the middle of this political fight. That means every general counsel in the country is revisiting how much data they are comfortable sharing back to Washington. When the legal shield disappears, information sharing freezes, just when we need it most.
Put those two facts together and you get a dangerous equation. A weakened federal cyber workforce plus a chilled information sharing environment equals slower detection, slower response and more room for foreign adversaries to maneuver.
The New Budget Deal: What It Fixes And What It Does Not
Over the weekend, the Senate advanced a bill that would end the shutdown and fund the government through January 30, while also passing three full year appropriations bills. The package includes full year funding for agriculture, military construction and veterans affairs, and the legislative branch. It funds food assistance programs like SNAP through the end of the fiscal year and restores pay and positions for thousands of federal workers who were laid off or furloughed.
For national security that is welcome news. The deal unlocks military construction, supports veterans and gives some predictability back to parts of the government that have been operating in crisis mode. It also halts mass layoffs at least until January, which is critical for agencies already bleeding talent.
But there are hard limits in this compromise. Most civilian agencies, including core cyber functions, will operate under a continuing resolution until late January. That means they are stuck at last year’s funding levels with restrictions on new programs, new hires and new initiatives. In the cyber world, where adversaries innovate daily, standing still is not neutral: it is falling behind.
There is also no automatic fix in this deal for the expired information sharing law. Unless Congress acts separately, that gap remains. Legal risk will continue to weigh on how freely companies share indicators of compromise, malware samples and other sensitive data with the federal government. In short, the deal stops the bleeding but it does not rebuild the muscle.
CMMC Goes Live Today In The Middle Of The Storm
Now layer CMMC on top of this picture. DoD/DoW has now finalized the CMMC acquisition rule and set November 10 2025 as the official start of a three year, four phase rollout. Beginning today, DoD will begin adding CMMC requirements into new solicitations. In Phase One, which runs from November 2025 through November 2026, contracting officers gain discretion to require CMMC Level 1 or Level 2 self assessments for contracts that involve Federal Contract Information or Controlled Unclassified Information.
Several important points flow from that:
- CMMC Is Now Real: This is no longer a pilot or a distant rulemaking. Final rules are published. The effective date is here. Clauses will begin to appear in contracts, task orders and modifications. Legal and procurement teams across the Defense Industrial Base are already seeing that language.
- Self Assessment Does Not Mean Casual Assessment: The rule ties CMMC representations back to existing false claims risk and requires formal affirmations in government systems. A company that signs its name to a 110 out of 110 score on the NIST 800-171 scale but cannot prove it, is now taking on real legal and financial exposure.
- CMMC Is A Condition Of Award: Agencies, Departments, Universities and industry groups are already warning members that starting today and over the next three years, achieving the required CMMC level becomes a prerequisite for winning or keeping many DoD/DoW contracts. That is the part some contractors still do not want to internalize. This is no longer a check the box memo from the CISO. It is a go or no go gate for revenue.
All of this is launching while the federal side of the equation is still digging out from a forty day shutdown. Contracting officers are behind. DCSA is catching up on visits and clearances. CISA is rebuilding capacity after furloughs and layoffs. The timing is not ideal, but the threat environment does not wait for ideal.
What This Means For DoD Contractors Right Now
If you work or support DoD/DoW, today is not a day for more webinars and wishful thinking. It is a day for execution.
Here is the practical reality in simple terms.
- CMMC enforcement begins today and will ratchet up every year between now and 2028.
- The shutdown has introduced delays and backlogs inside the government, but it has not delayed the rule itself.
- Cybersecurity agencies and information sharing programs are under strain, which makes the strength of your own controls and monitoring even more important.
If you are a prime or a key subcontractor, you should assume that competitors who are further along on CMMC will use this as a wedge. They will claim the high ground on compliance, data protection and eligibility. In a time of budget fights and supply chain worry, contracting officers will favor the path that feels safer and easier to defend.
At the same time, you should not count on the shutdown as an excuse. The rule is live. DoD/DoW has broad discretion in this initial phase and will use certainly it on programs that matter most. If your pipeline contains anything critical, anything sensitive or anything multi year, treat CMMC readiness as a board level risk.
The Strategic Lesson: Funding Fights Do Not Stop Cyber Threats
Washington has now given us a clear case study. A forty day shutdown and a major new cyber compliance regime all converging on the same date. The lesson is simple.
Cyber threats do not pause for politics. Nation state actors, ransomware crews and insider risks do not reschedule operations because Congress missed a deadline. CMMC is arriving in that world, not in a textbook.
For the United States, that means cybersecurity funding and authorities need more stability than the rest of the budget. Agencies like CISA and DCSA should not be whipsawed every year between shutdown planning and layoffs. Information sharing laws should not be left to expire in the middle of a funding fight.
For companies in the Defense Industrial Base, the path is equally clear. Treat CMMC as a strategic requirement, not a compliance side project. Build resilient programs that do not crumble every time Washington stumbles. Invest in people, process and technology that can stand on their own, with or without a perfect partner on the government side.
The shutdown will end. The headlines will move on. CMMC and the larger cyber threat environment will still be here. The only real question is whether your organization will be ready the next time Washington decides to test the system.
Disclosure: The author is CEO of CyberSheath, a company that has works with defense contractors and subcontractors on CMMC cybersecurity compliance.
