The Federal Government entered a shutdown effective at 12:01 AM on October 1, 2025 and as a result the operations and interactions with the FCC are affected. In a Public Notice released on September 30, 2025 the FCC announced that most Commission operations will be suspended pending the resolution by Congress of the issues related to the shutdown. The Public Notice addressed the following issues:
- During the suspension some public-facing filing systems and databases will remain available while others will not. Those filing systems and databases remaining open include the Network Outage Reporting System (NORS), the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS), the Electronic Document Management System (EDOCS), the Daily Digest, and the Commission Online Registration System (CORES). The Broadband Data Collection (BDC) system, the National Broadband Map, and the Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD) will be available but without user support.
- Normal filing deadlines under the Commission’s rules are extended by the Public Notice so that all Commission submissions that would be due during the suspension of operations through the day that normal operations resume will be due on the next business day after normal operations resume. The Notice provides the following example: If funding is appropriated for the Commission on a Monday, the Commission would resume normal operations on Tuesday morning and submissions would be due on Wednesday. The Notice states, however, that the extension of filing deadlines does not apply to NORS and DIRS filings, to provider responses to BDC fixed and mobile challenges or verification or audit requests deadlines established prior to the suspension of normal operations, or to enforcement matters for which other deadlines have been set by the Enforcement Bureau. No new BDC challenges will be processed, sent to providers, or adjudicated by FCC during the suspension. In addition, the Commission will not publish new versions of the National Broadband Map or Broadband Funding Map during this period.
- Regarding Universal Service Fund disbursements and contributions and other USAC filings, the Notice states that filings with fund administrators (including the USF) or entities other than the Commission (including State Commissions, U.S. Territorial Governments, or Tribal Governments) still must be filed on a timely basis during the suspension of Commission operations. These programs will continue to operate and services will continue to be provided during the suspension of normal Commission operations. USAC is not a federal agency and therefore not directly affected by the shutdown. As such, the disbursement of USF support payments and the processing of USF contribution payments is expected to continue during the shutdown. In the case of USAC required filings that must also be filed with the Commission, such filings should be filed with the Commission pursuant to the filing guidelines discussed above.
- The FCC’s Fee Filer System will not be available while normal operations are suspended, and therefore no regulatory fee or application fee payments can be made through the Fee Filer System during the shutdown period. No deadline for payments of any type is being extended by the Public Notice, however, except for a payment that can only be made through the Fee Filer system. In this case the applicable due date is extended in the same manner as the due date for other regulatory filings as discussed above.
The discussion above provides a summary of the key issues related to the Federal Government shutdown addressed in the Commission’s September 30, 2025 Public Notice. We will continue to monitor developments regarding this issue and will provide updates as more information becomes available.
