Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), vice chair of the powerful House Energy & Commerce Committee, has asked the FCC to provide some grace period for FCC employees who may want to file EEO complaints.
She is not saying there were such complaints in the pipeline, only that the FCC needs to make sure the government shutdown does not make it harder for furoughed eployees to file them.
The FCC signaled in its Jan. 2 shutdown plan that it would continue to recieve and record (though not investigate) EEO complaints, but that the complaints have to be filed within 45 days of the alleged action.
Clarke, in a letter to the FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says that with the stress and uncertainty of the (almost month-long) shutdown, it is ureasonable that they might also lose their EEO protections if they miss that window.
She wants the FCC to at least consider waiving or extending the 45-day deadline, or explan itself if the response is the FCC does not have that authority. She wants a response by end of day Friday (Jan. 18), either an explanation of why the FCC can't or how it will inform the public of the change if it can and will.
