If the partial lapse in federal government funding continues, the FCC will suspend most operations on Thursday, January 3, at mid-day. At that time, employees will have up to 4 hours to complete an orderly shutdown of operations. Work required for the protection of life and property will continue, however, as will any work related to spectrum auctions, which is funded by auction proceeds. In addition, the Office of the Inspector General will continue operations until further notice.

ARRL VEC Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM, said in such situations, the FCC website would go offline, including includes the Universal Licensing System (ULS) and the Commission Registration System (CORES). “This means all electronic license transactions would stop,” Somma said. “FRN registrations would be unavailable, and even the search engines would be unavailable.”

The FCC said it will release a Public Notice on January 1, detailing the specific effects that a suspension of operations would have, including the impact on electronic filing and database systems, filing deadlines, regulatory and application fee payments, transaction shot clocks, and more.

The FCC has released its overall shutdown plan. The resumption of normal operations will also be announced on the FCC’s website.

Agencies affected by the shutdown make up about a quarter of that portion of the federal government funded by Congress. Some 350,000 government employees have been furloughed since the partial shutdown began on December 22.