WASHINGTON-Even though the federal government went back to work last Thursday, following a three-week furlough and additional days lost to record snowfall, those who had business with the Federal Communications Commission still didn’t know what to do with pending paperwork in light of a liberal-leave personnel policy put in place until the “snow emergency” is over.
According to a FCC policy decision handed down earlier in the week, all paperwork that was due-comments, reply comments, petitions-during the official shutdown was to be submitted to the FCC within two days of its re-opening. However, because of the unforeseen blizzard that crippled most of the East Coast last week coupled with prognostications of a new front dumping another 12 inches on Washington, D.C., over the weekend, the managing director changed the guidelines.
According to an updated Jan. 11 decision, any documents that were due to be filed at any commission office (including Gettysburg, Pa., and the Mellon Bank) during the federal shutdown or snow days will be due no later than 5: 30 p.m., Jan. 16. In addition, any filings that were due Jan. 11 or Jan. 12 also will be due Jan. 16.
The open meeting scheduled for Jan. 18 has been cancelled. Because of the three-week shutdown plus snow days, commissioners and staff were not able to perform the normal three-week review of possible topics for action, although the chairman could have waived this process. A tentative date of Jan. 31 has been announced with the caveat that it, too, is subject to change. An en banc hearing regarding future spectrum issues, previously scheduled for Jan. 30, will be postponed until February or March.
C-block personal communications services auctions and 900 MHz specialized mobile radio auctions, which had closed down due to inclement weather following completion of their last rounds Jan. 5, will resume Jan. 16, as the commission will observe the federal Dr. Martin Luther King birthday holiday Jan. 15.
While the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association plans to “file what needs to be filed,” Brian Fontes, vice president for regulatory affairs and a former adviser to FCC Commissioner James Quello, pointed out, “We don’t know what the commission will do with the filings due to the liberal-leave policy. The FCC receives more than 3,000 license applications per day along with other comments, reply comments and petitions. These have been building up in the mailroom, and my heart goes out to those employees. I’ve been there.”
