Takeaways
- At midday, today, Jan. 3, the FCC is expected to suspend most of its operations, which will likely lead to delays in the agency’s review of Sprint/T-Mobile, according to practitioners.
- The halt in FCC business would be the result of a broader government shutdown. In a public notice published yesterday, Jan. 2, the FCC outlined the effects the shutdown would have on its operations.
- The commission will suspend its informal 180-day time clock on its review of the Sprint/T-Mobile transaction. According to the agency, the informal time clock will be restarted on the business day following the day of return to normal operations.
- The agency will also not review filings submitted during the shutdown. “Once the government reopens, [the FCC is] going to have a big backlog,” a practitioner who represents clients before the FCC told Reorg M&A. “There [are] going to be delays across the board.”
At midday, today, Jan. 3, the FCC is expected to suspend most of its operations, which will likely lead to delays in the agency’s review of Sprint/T-Mobile, according to practitioners.
The halt in FCC business would be the result of a broader government shutdown that began last week after President Trump rejected a bipartisan spending deal. Since then, Trump and members of Congress have still not come to an agreement on a funding proposal to reopen the government.
On Monday, Dec. 31, the FCC
announced that in the event of a continued partial lapse in funding, the commission would suspend most operations on Jan. 3. In a
public notice published yesterday, Jan. 2, the FCC outlined the effects of such a suspension of activity.
As part of the shutdown, the commission will suspend its informal 180-day time clock on its review of the Sprint/T-Mobile transaction. “The individual time clock for each pending transaction is stopped on the day of review that coincides with the last full business day before the lapse in funding, January 2, 2019,” the commission said. “The informal time clocks will be restarted on the business day following the day of return to normal operations.”
For example, if the lapse in funding ended on a Monday, the commission would return to normal operations on Tuesday, and would restart the clock on its review of the Sprint/T-Mobile deal on Wednesday. The agency is currently on Day 85 of its review of the merger.
The stopping of the clock on Jan. 2 would mark the second time the FCC has halted its review of the Sprint/T-Mobile transaction. The agency
paused the clock in September because staff needed additional time to review business and engineering models submitted by the companies, the agency said at the time. It
restarted the clock at Day 55 on Dec. 4.
In its public notice about the shutdown, the agency also said it would extend the normal filing deadlines under the commission’s rules. Commission submissions that would be due during a suspension of operations, including submissions otherwise due on Jan. 3, would now be due on the day after the FCC returned to normal operations, the agency stated.
Parties can still submit a filing to the FCC during the shutdown, but the FCC “says it’s not going to work on it,” a practitioner who represents clients before the FCC told Reorg M&A. “Once the government reopens, [the FCC is] going to have a big backlog,” the practitioner added. “There [are] going to be delays across the board.”
Along with the Sprint/T-Mobile deal, the agency will also review Nexstar’s transaction with Tribune. Tribune and Nexstar appear to have not yet submitted filings to the FCC regarding their merger. If they have, those filings have not been posted to the agency’s website.
--Alexandra Wilts