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 Federal  Communications  Commission  FCC  06-  6 
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 Before  the  Federal  Communications  Commission 
 Washington,  D.  C.  20554 


 In  the  Matter  of 
 Amendment  of  Section  1.13  of  the  Commissions  Rules 
 )  ) 
 )  ) 


 ORDER  Adopted:  January  24,  2006  Released:  January  26,  2006 
 By  the  Commission: 
 1.  By  this  order,  we  amend  47  C.  F.  R.    1.13(  a)(  2)  to  eliminate  an  inconsistency  with  the  Federal  Rules  of  Appellate  Procedure  (Federal  Rules)  that  arose  as  a  result  of  the 
 2002  amendments  to  the  Federal  Rules.  Section  1.13  of  the  Commissions  Rules  implements  the  provisions  of  28  U.  S.  C.    2112.  That  statutory  provision,  in  relevant  part, 
 is  applicable  to  situations  where  different  parties  seeking  review  of  the  same  agency  order  file  petitions  for  review  in  different  courts  of  appeals.  Under  28  U.  S.  C.    2112(  a), 
 if,  within  ten  days  after  issuance  of  the  order,  an  agency  receives  two  or  more  petitions  for  review  filed  with  different  courts  of  appeals,  that  agency  is  required  to  notify  the 
 judicial  panel  on  multidistrict  litigation,  which  then  randomly  selects  one  of  those  courts  of  appeals  to  consider  the  petitions  for  review.  Section  1.13(  a)(  1)  of  the  Commissions 
 Rules  implements  this  provision  by  specifying  that  a  party  wishing  to  avail  itself  of  these  procedures  must,  within  ten  days  after  issuance  of  an  order,  file  with  the  Commissions 
 Office  of  General  Counsel  (OGC)  a  copy  of  its  petition  for  review  as  filed  and  date-stamped  by  the  court  of  appeals  with  which  it  was  filed. 


 2.  The  inconsistency  which  we  correct  by  this  order  concerns  the  manner  in  which  the  ten-  day  period  for  filing  petitions  with  OGC  is  computed.  Section  1.13(  a)(  2) 
 of  the  Commissions  Rules  provides  that  [  c]  omputation  of  time  of  the  ten-  day  period  for  filing  copies  of  petitions  for  review  shall  be  governed  by    1.4  of  the  Commissions 
 Rules.  Section  1.4(  g),  in  turn,  sets  forth  the  general  Commission  rule  that,  unless  otherwise  provided,  intermediate  holidays  shall  not  be  counted  only  in  determining  filing 
 periods  of  less  than  seven  days.  The  term  holidays  is  defined  to  include  Saturdays,  Sundays,  other  recognized  federal  legal  holidays,  and  other  days  on  which  the 
 Commissions  offices  are  closed.  47  C.  F.  R.    1.4(  e). 
 3.  Because  the  period  for  filing  petitions  for  review  with  OGC  pursuant  to  section  2112(  a)  for  invoking  the  random  selection  process  is  not  less  than  seven  days,  weekends 
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 and  holidays  would  appear  to  be  counted  in  determining  the  ten-  day  period  under  existing  section  1.13.  Such  a  determination,  however,  conflicts  with  current  Federal  Rule  of 
 Appellate  Procedure  26(  a)(  2).  That  rule  applies  in  computing  any  period  of  time  specified  in  these  rules  or  in  any  local  court  rule,  court  order,  or  applicable  statute,  and 
 now  states  that  computations  must  [  e]  xclude  intermediate  Saturdays,  Sundays,  and  legal  holidays  when  the  period  is  less  than  11  days,  unless  stated  in  calendar  days.  1  Thus, 
 Rule  26(  a)(  2),  in  contrast  to  existing  47  C.  F.  R.    1.13,  excludes  weekends  and  holidays  in  making  the  relevant  ten-  day  computation  under  28  U.  S.  C.    2112.  Because  the 
 Commissions  Rules  should  be  consistent  with,  rather  than  conflict  with,  the  Federal  Rules  of  Appellate  Procedure,  we  will  amend  section  1.13(  a)(  2)  to  replace  the  reference 
 to  section  1.4  of  the  Commissions  Rules  with  a  reference  to  Rule  26  of  the  Federal  Rules  of  Appellate  Procedure,  thus  making  clear  that  the  ten-  day  period  under  section  1.13 
 excludes  weekends  and  holidays.  2 
 3.  Authority  for  this  rulemaking  is  contained  in  47  U.  S.  C.    154(  i)  and  154(  j)  and  28  U.  S.  C.    2112. 


 4.  ACCORDINGLY,  IT  IS  ORDERED,  That  47  C.  F.  R.    1.13  IS  AMENDED  as  set  forth  in  the  attached  Appendix  effective  30  days  subsequent  to  publication  in  the 
 Federal  Register.  3 
 5.  For  further  information,  contact  David  S.  Senzel,  (202)  418-  1720,  Office  of  General  Counsel. 


 FEDERAL  COMMUNICATIONS  COMMISSION 
 Marlene  H.  Dortch  Secretary 


 1  Prior  to  amendments  made  in  2002,  Rule  26(  a)(  2),  consistent  with  existing  section  1.13,  provided  that 
 weekends  and  holidays  would  be  excluded  when  the  period  is  less  than  7  days,  unless  stated  in  calendar  days. 


 2  We  note  that  Rule  26(  a)(  4)  defines  legal  holidays  to  mean  New  Years  Day,  Martin  Luther  Kings 
 Birthday,  Presidents  Day,  Memorial  Day,  Independence  Day,  Labor  Day,  Columbus  Day,  Veterans  Day,  Thanksgiving  Day,  or  other  various  government-  declared  holidays.  It  does  not,  however,  define  other  days 


 that  the  court  is  closed  as  holidays.  Rather,  if  the  act  to  be  done  is  filing  a  paper  in  court,  Rule  26(  a)(  3)  excludes  from  being  counted  as  a  day  the  last  day  of  the  filing  period  when  the  weather  or  other  conditions 
 makes  the  clerks  office  inaccessible.  We  will  apply  the  same  rule  when  the  Commission  is  closed  on  the  last  day  of  the  filing  period.  In  those  cases,  the  petition  must  be  filed  the  next  business  day  on  which  the 
 Commission  is  open. 
 3  Notice  and  comment  is  not  required  to  amend  a  procedural  rule.  See  5  U.  S.  C.    553(  b). 
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 APPENDIX 
 Part  1  of  Title  47  of  the  Code  of  Federal  Regulations  is  amended  as  follows: 
 Part  1    Practice  and  Procedure 
 1.  The  authority  citation  for  part  1  continues  to  read  as  follows: 
 Authority:  47  U.  S.  C.  151,  154,  303,  and  309(  j)  unless  otherwise  noted.. 
 2.  Section  1.13  is  amended  by  revising  paragraph  (a)(  2)  to  read  as  follows: 
   1.13  Filing  of  petitions  for  review  and  notices  of  appeals  of  Commission  orders. 
 (a)(  1)  *  *  *  * 
 (2)  Computation  of  time  of  the  ten-  day  period  for  filing  copies  of  petitions  for  review  of  a  Commission  order  shall  be  governed  by  Rule  26  of  the  Federal  Rules  of  Appellate 
 Procedure.  The  date  of  issuance  of  a  Commission  order  for  purposes  of  filing  copies  of  petitions  for  review  shall  be  the  date  of  public  notice  as  defined  in    1.4(  b)  of  the 
 Commissions  Rules,  47  CFR  1.4(  b). 
 *  *  *  * 
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