The FCC won't stay open longer than other parts of the federal government in the event of another partial federal shutdown, the agency told employees and confirmed to us Wednesday. It said it has insufficient reserve funds to delay largely shutting down when the continuing resolution funding it expires at midnight Friday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit handed the FCC a loss Friday, rejecting tribal Lifeline support limits and procedures. The FCC's 2017 tribal order was vacated and remanded for a new rulemaking.

The FCC is transplanting its former Wednesday agenda to the February commissioners’ meeting and moving that Feb. 21 meeting up by a week to take place before the Feb. 15 end of the continuing resolution funding the government, said a tentative agenda Tuesday morning.

The now-open FCC delayed deadlines until Feb 8 for all filings that would have been due Jan. 8-Feb. 7. Also, filings that were due from Jan. 2 (the start of the agency's closure) through Jan. 7 remain due Wednesday, said a Tuesday afternoon public notice. It supersedes the commission's earlier guidance.

The FCC will hold its scheduled commissioners’ meeting Jan. 30 but without the planned agenda items, the agency said in a release Wednesday. “Due to the current partial lapse in appropriations, the items previously set forth in the January 3, 2019 Tentative Agenda will not be considered at the meeting,” the release said. If the shutdown continues through Tuesday, the meeting will be held via conference call, the release said. If the shutdown ends and the FCC “resumes normal operations” before Tuesday, the meeting will be held in the Commission Meeting Room, consisting of “announcements only” rather than the agenda items, the agency said.

As the FCC's closure drags on, the agency has reversed course and is reopening its equipment authorization system. That potentially allows some new RF equipment to gain approval. A Jan. 2 public notice on the lapse in funding said the EAS wouldn't be available, the FCC noted Friday.

That the FCC lacks funding wasn't sufficient cause for the court overseeing challenges to the agency's rollback of common-carrier net neutrality rules to delay oral argument. "These cases remained scheduled for oral argument on February 1, 2019," said a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit order filed Thursday.

Due to the ongoing FCC closure during the partial government shutdown, the agency Tuesday requested that the court hearing appeals to its common-carrier net neutrality rollback delay Feb. 1's oral argument. The agency's request noted petitioners oppose the motion. The case is Mozilla v. FCC, No. 18-1051.

The Senate confirmed Democratic FCC nominee Geoffrey Starks and Commissioner Brendan Carr to a second full term Wednesday night via unanimous consent. The chamber also confirmed Kelvin Droegemeier as White House Office of Science and Technology Policy director. A breakthrough on a string of confirmations followed hours of negotiations Wednesday night between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a Senate source said.

The FCC electronic comment filing system, electronic document management system, Daily Digest, universal licensing system and network outage reporting system will remain up during the partial government and agency shutdown, said a public notice Wednesday. Shot clocks on deals will be paused, though some incentive auction activities will continue, the PN said. Comment deadlines also will be paused.