WASHINGTON—As the federal government shut down comes to an end, the Federal Communications Commission has further extended some filing deadlines and issued some guidance on its plans for restoring the agency to normal operations.
On Sept. 30, the FCC issued a Public Notice providing guidance on FCC operations in the event of a partial lapse in funding. As part of that plan, the FCC said that all filings that would have been due during the suspension of operations would become due on the business day following the resumption of normal operations.
In its new guidance, the agency said that “we now further extend deadlines for all filings that would have been due from October 1, 2025, through November 17, 2025. The deadline for all such filings is now extended at least until Tuesday, November 18, 2025. The FCC and components of the FCC will issue further guidance prior to November 18, 2025, that will provide additional flexibility on filing deadlines for certain specific systems, matters, and programs, including the FCC’s Universal Licensing System and Equipment Authorization System.”
The agency also noted that given the unprecedented length of the shutdown, they anticipated that the public will have an exceptionally large number of filings and submissions that they will want to file in a relatively short period of time as the FCC resumes normal operations.
In response to that potential backlog, the agency said “FCC staff will work in good faith with parties to resolve and address issues that arise with an influx of new filings and requests. We anticipate that complications may arise in some cases. FCC staff will bring a flexible, commonsense approach to resolving the range of issues that may arise upon re-opening in these circumstances.”
The FCC also said that they would “waive the Commission’s rules to the extent necessary to effectuate this extension. This extension of filing deadlines does not apply to filings in the Network Outage Reporting System (NORS) and Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) or to filings related to spectrum auction activities authorized by section 309(j).”
In addition the agency said that “any Special Temporary Authorities (STAs) that would have expired from October 1, 2025, through November 17, 2025, are extended at least until November 18, 2025, except to the extent that such STAs relate to activities authorized under section 309(j).”
Finally, “until such further guidance is issued, we ask parties to limit filings and submissions except where immediate authority is needed and to refrain from submitting filings seeking additional relief from filing deadlines for the time being,” the agency said.
