With the possibility of a government shutdown looming on us, especially with an upcoming filing window, there are already concerns on how the FCC is going to handle things during and right after the government shutdown (if one takes place).
During the government shutdown all Media Bureau personnel will be furloughed with the exception of one leadership role that will be on-call.
It is our understanding that CDBS will continue to be functional during the shutdown however it is unknown whether applications will be able to be filed. There will be on-call contractors to address IT issues with FCC systems.
In the 1996 government shutdown, the FCC's policy was that documents that were due during the government shutdown are due on the second day after the FCC opens. For information, see this 1996 Public Notice.
For the sake of the LPFM window, REC is advising all prospective LPFM applicants to contnue to work on their applications to target the filing window from October 15 through 29 like if the shutdown never happened.
Once the FCC is notified of a government shutdown, staff will be given a 4-hour wind-down period to secure their work.
If a government shutdown takes place, REC will shut down the daily and weekly updates and they will resume on the second day after the FCC reopens. This will not interrupt myLPFM or Broadcast Query (recnet.net). If anything, this will make the tools more available during periods that the system is normally limited due to database updates.
Keep checking with us and the FCC for more updates.
