The fiscal year for the federal government runs from October 1 through September 30 and since October 1, 2017 the government has been running on a series of Continuing Resolutions (CR) The CRs are short term spending measures and the last CR is set to expire on January 19, 2018. Congress must pass another short term CR or pass the entire rest of the year budget by midnight or the federal government will shut down and many government employees will be furloughed until the budget gets resolved.
The FCC released a statement regarding a possible government shutdown and “…because of available funding, the FCC plans to remain open and pay staff at least through the close of business on Friday, January 26…” However, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) is not funded through the federal appropriations process and USAC employees and their contractors will all be able to continue to work. USAC will be able to receive FY 2018 Form 471 applications, release commitments and disbursements as they typically do.
Hopefully, Congress will be able to keep the federal government running and pass the budget and if there is a shutdown, that the shutdown will only last a few days. The FCC statement can be viewed here.
