FCC & Government Shutdown

[voguy]

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN AFFECTS THE FCC

With the government shutdown that came into affect on October 1st, one of the many agencies affected is the FCC.

Until the government shutdown actually occurred on October 1st, no one was quite sure which FCC services required by Amateur Radio would be affected.

A widely circulated FCC shutdown plan suggested only essential personnel mandated by law would remain on duty until the budget situation is resolved.

Automated services such as license processing and address changes were unavailable as anyone who attempted to access the FCC's Website on October 1st were quick to learn,

The landing page at FCC.gov said in part: "We regret the disruption, but during the Federal Government-wide shutdown, the FCC is limited to performing duties that are immediately necessary for the safety of life or the protection of property. FCC online systems will not be available until further notice."

After giving a short list of links to cancelled meetings and actions, the statement continued:

"If you need to contact the FCC to address an emergency situation, please call: (202) 418-1122 or email: [email protected]."

The Network Outage Reporting System remains open for telecommunications providers to report network outages.

There is no way to access the U-L-S pages; no way to file license applications, updates or changes or report rules violations. Simply put, the physical and electronic doors to the FCC are closed -- and won't re-open until Congress ends the budget impasse.

Commission employees who remain on call are ready to act should there be an actual crisis. As many as 16 have been retained to handle emergencies, including staffing the FCC Operations Center and 8 others to conduct emergency level interference detection, mitigation and disaster response operations.

So if you are waiting for a license or other paperwork from the FCC to show up in your mailbox, you will simply have to keep on waiting.