The Federal Communications Commission has largely shut down alongside the federal government, with more than four out of five employees furloughed and day-to-day systems frozen – including the licensing and comment portals broadcasters rely on for transactions and regulatory engagement.
The government shutdown is currently in its second day, with no immediate resolution in sight.
According to the FCC’s contingency plan, approximately 244 employees, about 19% of the Commission’s total workforce, would remain active. They will staff functions deemed essential to protect life and property will continue, including outage reporting, incident response, interference mitigation, and security for FCC facilities and critical IT systems.
Spectrum auction activities, international treaty-related work, and certification of Universal Service Fund and Telecommunications Relay Service disbursements will also proceed, as they are funded by sources other than annual appropriations.
Nearly all consumer-facing services have stopped. That includes response to complaint and inquiry phone lines, consumer protection enforcement, licensing services for broadcast, wireless, and wireline, and equipment authorization for new devices. The Commission also noted that management of radio spectrum and the creation of new competitive opportunities for the public are suspended.
Regulatory clocks and deadlines are paused, with broadcasters likely to be given extra time to catch up once funding is restored.
Included in that, the Licensing and Management System (LMS) and many aspects of the Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) are now paused, effectively freezing knowledge of pending transactions and halting public comment on ongoing regulatory matters.
For broadcasters, the timing is especially precarious. The FCC is in the middle of several long-desired proceedings central to radio’s future, including the re-examination of local ownership caps, the modernization of the Emergency Alert System and Disaster Information Reporting System, and the 2022 Quadrennial Review of media ownership rules. All of that work has been put on hold.
The current standoff carries an even sharper edge because of new guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget. In a September 24 memo, OMB instructed federal agencies that in the event of a shutdown, programs “whose funding would lapse” on October 1 “are no longer statutorily required to be carried out.” Agencies, it continued, should “use this opportunity to consider Reduction in Force.”
Whether that language signals potential permanent workforce reductions at the FCC or simply reflects standard shutdown protocol remains unclear.
As for ending the shutdown, lawmakers remain at a partisan impasse over funding, particularly disagreements related to health care subsidies under the Affordable Care Act that Democrats insist should be maintained as part of any deal to reopen the government. Both Republican and Democratic legislative proposals have failed in the Senate, and the House of Representatives is not expected to consider new legislation until next week.
