Businesses face 36,000 hours of FCC disclosure paperwork

Businesses and nonprofits covered by a new disclosure system could spend an estimated 36,000 hours a year on the forms, and the Federal Communications Commission, at the federal level, is asking whether that load is justified. The review is being done under the Paperwork Reduction Act, or PRA, of 1995, and the public and other federal agencies can comment through Aug. 17, 2026.

The collection, FCC Form 5655, would gather the Foreign Adversary Risk Report from regulated entities. The agency says the report would help fill gaps about whether those entities are owned, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction of a foreign adversary, and some of the material could be made public subject to privacy and confidentiality limits.

The burden test

The FCC is asking whether the collection is necessary for the proper performance of its functions, whether the information has practical utility and whether its burden estimate is accurate. It also wants ideas to improve the quality, utility and clarity of the information collected, including automated collection techniques or other information technology.

Small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees are singled out in the notice, which asks how to reduce the paperwork load on them in particular. The agency says the collection would affect 18,000 respondents and take about two hours per response on average.