FCC Requires Circumstances Outside Petitioners’ Control to Satisfy E-Rate “Extraordinary Circumstances Standard” for Late-Filed Invoices

On February 17, 2026, the Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) issued an order granting appeals for applicants whose requests for reimbursement were late-filed, despite being submitted before the USAC-generated invoice filing deadline. 

The Bureau found that each petitioner demonstrated extraordinary circumstances that warranted a waiver of the invoicing deadline.  

In 2014, the Commission set a higher bar – petitioners must show “extraordinary circumstances” – for the grant of a waiver request for missing the invoice filing deadline.  The Bureau has interpreted that standard to require “circumstances outside of the control” of program beneficiaries and service providers.  In this decision, the Bureau made that standard explicit, including for situations where USAC system issues made it impossible or difficult to invoice.  

Here, the Bureau found that “petitioners reasonably relied on USAC’s system and invoice deadline tools as the deadline for submitting their requests for reimbursement.”  Importantly, in each case, the Bureau found that the petitioners had timely filed their requests for reimbursement or request for extension based on an incorrect invoice filing deadline provided in USAC’s system or tools.  As in previous orders, the petitioners in this decision relied on misinformation created by the USAC system and tools that unnecessarily led to the procedural denial of the requests for reimbursement and requests for extension that were timely filed based on the incorrect invoice filing deadlines generated by USAC.  Specifically, in each case, the Bureau found that USAC denied the requests for reimbursement as being submitted after the invoice filing deadline despite USAC’s own system and public-facing tools indicating that the deadline had not yet passed. 

The Bureau reiterated that waivers of the invoicing rules were generally not in the public interest and should be granted only in extraordinary circumstances.

Broadband Legal Strategies represented one of the petitioners, Sharyland Independent School District, whose appeal was granted in this decision.