[EAS] Form-Two Deadline - No Time Zones Stated!

[Dave Kline]

All good points Sean, thank you.

As you've pointed out, there are other areas of law that imply a specific time zone if one is not otherwise stated.
This may be the legal language that the FCC had to dance around in crafting this year's notice. It is also why this year's deadlines will not necessarily hold for future years.

11.61 does not specify any time zones when giving deadlines. That regulation simply allows you 24 hours "after the test" to submit Form-Two. Going by that law alone, if I'm in the Central Time Zone, and the test comes down at 1:20 PM CDT, I have until 1:20 PM the following day to file my "day of the test" reports.
11.61 also gives the commission discretion in setting a different deadline. In the past, that deadline has always been less than 24 hours. Now you have 24 hours plus a bit extra. There has always been discrepancies between what is written in this regulation and what is stated in the notices. Part of the effort was to point out these discrepancies in hopes of increased clarity.

I would also advise that everyone still make a best effort to submit Form-Two as soon as possible. If we simply shift the problems related to the deadlines by waiting until the last hour, we may lose the extension in future years.

The request to specifically remove any reference to time zones when setting deadlines to submit forms was secondary to the goal of extending the amount of time required to submit Form-Two. The idea in all of this was to extend the deadline, but also to help level the playing field. Both ideas were expressed in the request. In stating the deadline, some folks have added in Eastern Time, when it did not appear in the notice. If they had other knowledge such as you have presented, they should have cited that, as you did.

Your advice is sound Sean, and I'll echo it with a bit of a twist.
Don't take legal advice from some random guy on the internet, especially me.

I won't be defending your station if a problem were to arise. You are wise to get your advice from the same person who will go to bat for you if that advice is called into question.

On Tue, Jun 22, 2021 at 6:31 PM Sean Donelan <sean at donelan.com> wrote:

>As always consult a licensed attorney, and not an internet list.  Unless
>otherwise specified in law or regulation, U.S. Code specifies the default
>time zone for official acts is the District of Columbia. In other words,
>unless the FCC (or other law) specifies otherwise, its Eastern time.

>In practice, the FCC just wants licensees to file their ETRS forms. It
>hasn't cut-off submissions after the deadline, and has accepted
>submissions days/months late.

>For next pendantic discussion, does midnight occur at 0000 or 2400, i.e.
>is midnight included at the beginning or end of the day.

>4 USC 72
>"All offices attached to the seat of government shall be
>exercised in the District of Columbia, and not elsewhere, except as
>otherwise expressly provided by law."

>15 USC 262
>"In all statutes, orders, rules, and regulations relating to
>the time of performance of any act by any officer or department of the
>United States, whether in the legislative, executive, or judicial
>branches of the Government, or relating to the time within which any
>rights shall accrue or determine, or within which any act shall or shall
>not be performed by any person subject to the jurisdiction of the United
>States, it shall be understood and intended that the time shall insofar
>as practicable (as determined by the Secretary of Transportation) be the
>United States standard time of the zone within which the act is to be
>performed."

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Dave Kline - Solder Jockey
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