FCC Denies motion of the National Hispanic Media Coalition for extension of time to file comments in the Restoring Internet Freedom proceeding

On July 7, 2017, the National Hispanic Media Coalition filed a Motion for Extension of Time in the above captioned proceeding. Petitioner asks us to extend the initial comment deadline until “60 days after the Commission complies with [NHMC’s] outstanding” Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. For the reasons set forth below, we deny the Motion.

NHMC contends that an extension is warranted to “ensure that all evidence relevant to this proceeding is available to the public, and that the public has adequate time to analyze the evidence and comment accordingly. Specifically, the Commission must produce the approximately 47,000 open Internet complaints that it has received, and documents related to the open internet ombudsperson’s interactions with internet users, all of which are the subject of an unfulfilled [FOIA] request filed by NHMC.” We find that that NHMC’s stated request does not justify the requested lengthy delay in the comment cycle in this proceeding. Under Section 1.46 of the Commission’s rules, it is the policy of the Commission that extensions of time shall not be routinely granted. For the reasons discussed below, we conclude that NHMC has not shown that an extension is warranted here.