FCC Reopens; Temporary Suspension of Filing Deadlines

UPDATED. Filing Deadlines and Rescheduled Open Meeting Announced

With the temporary budget deal reached on October 16th, the FCC again opened for business on October 17. However, the FCC published a notice this morning saying that all filing deadlines that occurred during the shutdown or on or before October 21 are suspended until further notice. Outage-related filings through the NORS system are not affected. Those deadlines remain in place.

We expect the FCC to issue a series of public notices setting filing deadlines in individual proceedings over the next two days. We will post filing updates in this thread.

UPDATE: The October 22 Open Meeting is postponed. The website states that because the Commission could not issue a Sunshine Notice on October 15, the meeting is postponed. It will issue a public notice when the meeting is rescheduled. (The next regularly scheduled open meeting is November 14).

UPDATE: The October Open Meeting will be held on Monday, October 28. Rural Call Completion, 700 MHz interoperability and FirstNet will be on the agenda. The Commission waived the Sunshine Period until noon on Thursday, Oct. 24.

UPDATE: The Bureaus issued a detailed public notice resetting filing deadlines for all filings that were due between October 1 and October 21. The public notice should be consulted carefully to determine the exact impact in individual cases. Among the highlights:

• Filings that would have been due Oct. 1 through Oct. 6 are instead due Oct. 22
• Filings that would have been due Oct. 7 through Oct. 16 are extended by 16 days (the length of the government shutdown). Normal rules for calculation of the due date if the date falls on a weekend or holiday apply. Reply comments in rulemaking proceedings affected by this extension are similarly extended by 16 days.
• Filings that would be due between Oct. 17 and November 4 are due on November 4.
• Comments in the Verizon Petition for Declaratory Ruling on foreign ownership are due Oct. 25 and November 1.
• Reply comments in the e-rate reform proceeding are due November 8.
• Any filing with a statutory deadline that the Commission cannot waive is due on October 22.